Amne Machin

Infobox Mountain
Name = Amne Machin
Photo =
Caption = Map showing localization of Amne Machin peak
Elevation = convert|6282|m|ft|0
Location = China, province of QinghaiNearest major city = Xining, convert|530|km|mi|0|abbr=on south-east
Range = Kunlun Shan
Coordinates = coord|34|47|54|N|099|27|45|E|type:mountain
First ascent = 1981, U.S. expedition

Amne Machin (or Anye Machin) is one of the highest peaks of a mountain range named Amne Machin Shan (A'nyêmaqên Shan) and located in west-central China (province of Qinghai). The Amne Machin mountains belong to the Kunlun Shan, a major mountain system in Asia. The peak elevation is estimated to 20,610 feet (6,282 meters). It is ranked number 23 in height among the mountain peaks of China.

History

The massif had long been considered a sacred mountain and a place of pilgrimage, when before the Communist 'liberation' up to 10,000 Golog Tibetans would make the 120-mile circumambulation of the mountain each year. The first European to describe the mountain was the British explorer Brigadier-General George Pereira on his expedition on foot from Peking to Lhasa of 1921-2, sometimes reckoned one of the great geographical discoveries of the twentieth century.

However, the massif remained unclimbed until 1949. The Amne Machin mountains had been overflown by a few American pilots who overestimated the elevation to 30,000 feet. A 1930 article of the National Geographic estimated the peak elevation to 28,000 feet according to the report of Joseph Rock, an American botanist and explorer. For a while, the mountains were considered as a possible place for a peak higher than Mount Everest. In 1949, a Chinese expedition climbed the mountain, but it was demonstrated in 1980 that this expedition didn't climb the right peak.

The Amne Machin peak was first climbed in 1981 by a U.S. expedition (the first foreign expedition authorized by the Chinese government). Galen Rowell, Harold Knutsen and Kim Scmitz reached the summit successfully and reported its true elevation to be 20,610 feet.

References

Sir Francis Younghusband and George Pereira, "Peking to Lhasa; The Narrative of Journeys in the Chinese Empire Made by the Late Brigadier-General George Pereira", (London: Constable and Company, 1925)

External links

* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798468,00.html Time magazine from 1948 about the Amne Machin mountains]
* [http://www.americanalpineclub.org/AAJO/pdfs/1982/88_rowell_anyemaqen_aaj1982.pdf Galen A. Rowell, "On and Around Anyemaqen"]
* [http://cn.pagenation.com/fm.asp?id=maps.google.com%2Fmaps%3Fll=34.5,100%26hl=en%26t=k%26z=14 Google map satellite view of the Amne Machin mountains]