On top of it all

Climbing at night is a great challenge for body and mind.

"My physical strength dropped dramatically," says Dong. "I relied totally on my willpower to get me through. A climber needs to go at his own pace. But a long line will slow everyone, and that weakens all the climbers, and that makes it even more dangerous."

The mountain towers over the small town of Moshi. Climbers arrived on Feb 4 to a warm welcome. The snowcapped peak of the mountain glinted brilliantly in the sunlight－romantic, pristine and mysterious－offering no hint that the they were about to battle the worst storm on the mountain in 20 years.

The Sino-Tanzanian mountaineering team was organized to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Tanzania. The Chinese Mountaineering Association attached so much importance to the venture that China's most celebrated mountaineer, Wang Yongfeng, was appointed the leader of the team.

The Tanzanian authorities had arranged for about 40 local people to act as porters and they carried the food and heavy equipment up the mountain.

"The government of Tanzania organized the whole venture very well. We were treated like VIPs," says Dong, who was the leader of a team from China University of Geosciences in Wuhan. As well as climbing Kilimanjaro, the university also did research on tectonic movements in the northeast of Tanzania and on the surge of magma in the Great Rift Valley during their trip.