Rongbuk Glacier
The Rongbuk Glacier is located in the Himalaya of southern Tibet. Two large tributary glaciers, the East and West Rongbuk Glaciers flow into the Rongbuk Glacier. It has a total length of 22.4 kilometers and covers a total area of 85.4 square kilometers. The largest glacier lies in the Qomolangma Nature Reserve. It is also the most completely developed and best preserved form of valley glacier in world.
The Rongbuk Glacier is one of the most magnificent sights in Tibet. Its ice lobe has an average width of 1.4 kilometers and an average depth of 120 meters, reaching over 300 meters deep at certain points. Looking southward from the glacier, Qomolangma appears as a gigantic pyramid standing above all the other mountains, while the two branches of the Rongbuk Glacier look like a huge tree, holding the peak on its top. The Rongbuk Glacier has many bowl-shaped cirques and hanging glaciers. It boasts a great number of glacial lakes, ice cliffs ice caves and crevasses, presenting marvelous and unique sights. Mountaineers have called it the world’s largest “alpine park”.
The action of three natural elements on the northern side of the Qomolangma, namely low latitude, arid climate and high elevation, have helped create the world wonder of the high altitude continental Rongbuk Glacier and its serac ice forest. According to glaciologists, the serac ice forests of the Qomolangma and Gasherbrum areas are the most magnificent in the world.
The Himalayas acts as a natural screen, blocking the northward movement of southwesterly monsoon air currents and making the north side of the range and the Tibetan Plateau dry with little precipitation. The Rongbuk Glacier has the physical properties of a sub-continental type glacier. It neither grows much nor retreats much, being more stable than the marine glaciers on Himalayas’ southern slopes, and is ideal for mountaineering tourism.
Admission fee: RMB 10/person (For reference)
Opening hours: Unsure