Two numbers attached to Everest in older accounts are out of date, and one of them is dangerous. The height was revised: China and Nepal announced 8,848.86 metres jointly in December 2020, which is 29,032 feet, not the 29,021 usually given — a figure that was wrong even against the old measurement. More seriously, the base camp those accounts describe at 21,320 feet is not the base camp. That is the advanced base camp, a mountaineering position at around 6,490 metres. The base camp a visitor can actually reach on the Tibetan side sits at about 5,200 metres and has a road to it.
The height, and when it changed
The agreed height of Everest is 8,848.86 metres. It was announced jointly on 8 December 2020, when the presidents of China and Nepal exchanged letters settling a figure the two countries had previously given differently. In imperial measure that is 29,032 feet.
The 29,021 feet that circulates in older accounts is wrong twice over: it is the pre-2020 position, and it is not even a correct conversion of the older 8,848-metre figure, which comes out at 29,029 feet. Any account carrying 29,021 was built on a bad sum before the revision made it moot.
Three names
The mountain is Chomolungma in Tibetan and Qomolangma in official Chinese usage — the Chinese foreign ministry writes Mount Qomolangma throughout in English — alongside the English name given after a nineteenth-century Surveyor General of India. The boundary peak itself is designated the China–Nepal Friendship Peak.
Which border it is on
Older accounts place Everest "along the border of China with Nepal and Tibet", which cannot be true as written, since Tibet is part of China. The mountain sits on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The southern approach is Nepalese; the northern approach is in Tibet.
It is also worth saying what Everest is not. It does not appear anywhere on China's list of inscribed World Heritage properties — a striking omission given that most of China's culturally significant mountains carry designations.
Base camp, and the figure that gets mislabelled
This is the correction with practical consequences, because the two camps are nearly 1,300 metres apart and only one of them is somewhere an ordinary visitor goes.
The base camp on the Tibetan side sits at about 5,200 metres, roughly 17,050 feet, and it is reachable by road — tourist buses stop about a mile short of it. The advanced base camp is at around 6,490 metres, about 21,300 feet, and is a mountaineering camp reached on foot over several days.
The "base camp at 21,320 ft (6,500 m)" in older accounts is therefore the advanced base camp under the wrong name. On a page a general reader might act on, that reads as an invitation to a place that requires an expedition.
Permits, and travelling on a tour
Access to the northern side is not a matter of turning up. British government advice states that a permit is required to travel to Tibet and the Tibet Autonomous Region, that it must be obtained through a specialist travel agent in China, and that visitors must travel on an organised tour.
Two warnings go with that. The Chinese authorities sometimes stop issuing permits without notice, and may restrict travel to Tibetan autonomous prefectures in neighbouring provinces even for those holding a permit. And the British embassy's ability to assist British nationals inside the region is limited.
A further military or border-area permit for the Everest region is commonly required on top of the Tibet permit. That requirement could not be confirmed from British government advice or any other official source, so it should be treated as something to check with whoever arranges the permits rather than assumed either way.
The routes
There are two principal routes to the summit, one from Nepal and one from the Tibetan side, and a number of others that have been climbed. Older accounts give a count of "over a dozen other minor ones" and name the two main routes by ridge; neither the count nor the ridge naming could be confirmed from an official source, so neither is worth repeating. Standard reference works describe the approaches by valley and col rather than by ridge name.
What a visitor actually does
For almost everyone who goes, Everest from the Chinese side means a long drive across the Tibetan plateau to a viewpoint at over five thousand metres, on an organised tour with permits arranged in advance — not a climb. The altitude is the practical constraint: Lhasa itself stands at around 3,650 metres, and the base camp is a further 1,500 above that, which is high enough that acclimatisation matters more than fitness.
Entering China
One date governs everything. British citizens holding standard passports could enter mainland China visa-free for stays of up to thirty days until the end of December 2026, for tourism, business, visiting family or friends, and transit; paid work, study, journalism and longer stays need a visa arranged in advance, and no extension beyond 2026 has been announced. A passport needs at least six months' validity beyond arrival and two blank pages.
Visa-free entry to China is not permission to enter Tibet. The Tibet permit is separate, and so is the requirement to travel on an organised tour — both apply whatever the visa position, and the permit is arranged inside China rather than before departure.
Changed