Zhang Hong, a 46-year-old Chinese man, has climbed Mount Everest from the Nepalese side, becoming the first blind man in Asia and the third in the world to do it.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re disabled or not, if you’ve lost your eyesight or don’t have legs or hands; as long as you have a strong intellect, you can always do a task that others say you can’t,” Zhang told Reuters.
Zhang and three high-altitude guides completed the 8,849-meter Himalayan challenge on May 24 and returned to base camp.
Zhang, who was born in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, was blind at the age of 21 due to glaucoma.
Erik Weihenmayer, a blind American mountaineer who conquered Everest in 2001, encouraged him, and he began training with his mountain guide friend Qiang Zi.
