JIANG HUA, a Shenzhen University alumnus, successfully reached the peak of Mt. Qomolangma, also known as Mt. Everest, from the South Slope at 7 a.m. (Nepal time ) on May 16, in the first batch of Chinese to scale the height this year, according to a Southern Metropolis Daily report Tuesday.

Jiang, 41, received a warm welcome at Shenzhen International Airport on May 23 and was greeted by his friends and family members.

These amazing moments were all started by a dream of climbing Mt. Qomolangma 14 years ago.

Jiang was inspired by Wang Shi, chairman of property developer Vanke, who reached the peak of Mt. Qomolangma on May 22, 2003. At the time, Jiang was working as a truck driver and watched the CCTV telecast all day with respect and admiration.

Over the following 12 years, Jiang strove hard to succeed. One by one he started his own companies and made investments in chain stores. In 2015, he began trying high-altitude mountaineering and successfully reached the summit of Manaslu (8,156 meters) in September that year, which set the stage for climbing Mt. Qomolangma.

In the six months before his adventure last month, he began training and fostering good habits. He drank a large amount of boiled water and tried to avoid juices and spicy foods.

On March 28, Jiang rendezvoused with two other climbers from Beijing and Kunming and headed to Katmandu for 40 days of training. Throughout the training, they hiked from Lukla to the base camp, and finally to the C3 Camp. They kept their ascents within 600 meters per day due to safety concerns.

After careful research, Jiang set off in May, the best month of the year for climbers because of the relatively stable climate with an increase in sunny days and decrease in rain and snow.

He hired a legendary leader named Nima Gongbu, who had already reached the summit 18 times, and a local Sherpa guide. The guide was crucial to his success, without whom he would not have been able to carry all of the supplies and change the oxygen cylinder on his own.

When the training was finished, whether or not they could proceed with the climb depended on the weather. Knowing the daunting statistic that the death rate of nonprofessional climbers is 4 percent, waiting seemed more torturous for everyone as time went by. On the evening of May 12, Gongbu gave every eager heart in the camp a jolt with the news that they would set off in the wee hours the next day.

“It did not take long for the team to encounter their first barrier on the only way to the C1 Camp — Khumbu Icefall. What makes the barrier dangerous is its unpredictable movement along the Earth’s surface, which kills many climbers, from falling into ice cracks or icefalls,” Jiang said in an interview with the Southern Metropolis Daily.

The mountaineers set out for the peak in good weather at 9 p.m. After a nearly 20-hour ascent, the team finally reached the summit. At that moment, Jiang felt relieved and exhausted at the same time. However, that wasn’t the end of their challenge.

While the climb was hard enough, the descent was even harder. Eighty percent of mountaineers who die are killed on their way down. It usually happens because they lose the spiritual strength that had been keeping them going and drained almost all their energy.

Countless times Jiang reached the verge of collapse and flopped down to the ground. Besides being pulled up by his teammates, it was the thought of his family that powered the rest of his steps. “I miss home so much that booking a plane ticket was the first thing that I did once I returned to camp. I felt more thrilled when I got home than when I was preparing to set off for Mt. Qomolangma,” said Jiang.

There are 14 mountains in the world with altitudes over 8,000 meters, and for a mountaineer who has already conquered two, the other 12 are where his dream rests. As a man with a family to take care of, Jiang said that he was willing to “lay aside my dream.” (Lei Kaibin, Han Ximin)