Everest North Side Expedition
Chinese SOHU Expedition

Dispatch Six: New Update: the equipments of CCTV arrived the Everest and all the climbers entered the No.1 camp

At noon April 11, two trucks which left from Peking arrived the Everest's base camp, full of the equipments for television transmission of CCTV. A part of these equipments will be carried to the mountain where the elevation is about 6500 meters or even 7028 meters. The technicians will install and adjust them. However, the arriving of the equipments was only the first small step of the long journey. The most important is how to carry the equipments to each place safely and quickly and make them for ready.

At 16:30 April 11, all the members (not include Zhang Chaoyang) of China SOHU mountain climbing team left the base camp to move up led by the captain Wang Yongfeng. They arrived the No.1 camp where the altitude is 5500 meters after more than two hours. However, the weather changed suddenly when they climbing. It was observed that the wind power in the mountains was about seven or eight level.

New Update: Zhang Chaoyang, the CEO of SOHU is to be a flying fox next month

At 5 o"clock in Apr.8th, Zhang Chaoyang, who has been busy for a day finally spared time to talk to us.

His office is located on the 15th story in the Guanghuang Changan Masion in Beijing. In the middle of this month, getting out of this oasis of cement and together with 2003 China SOHU mountain climbing brigade, this 38-year CEO will climb the Everest. He will send colorful short messages and ordinary messages with SOHU message sending tool at an elevation of 6666 meters and try to play the online game "Chivalry Online" with cyber acquaintances through maritime satellite. Zhang said that mountain climbing is a marketing activity which would promote the SOHU brand.

He said "in general, SOUH has got out of the Internet recession and started making profit. Now it is expanding to be a larger company. Our aim is to create a long lived brand and we have scaled to the first platform on which we start our new race.

"No matter in the brand connotation, employees, and enterprise culture, SOHU should be poured into a new spirit, the one of making persistent effort to achieve a higher mountain, basing on a long-term vision, and constantly accepting new challenge. This mountain climbing action is a big deal. CCTV and SOHU will make a full-course report at the same time, which provides SOHU news center with valuable information. Meanwhile, this event is also an experiment in the aspect of hi-tech and short message communication. We hope that we can show the development of modern mobile communication technology in the polar region. By means of maritime satellite, iridium phone, notebook computer, if possible, we could realize the full covery of mobile signals to convey the ordinary and colorful messages.

The CEO of SOHU is always a extraordinary guy in people's eye. He would play the skateboard in Tian Anmen square at the ceremony of the SOHU foundation; he would tour the whole nation to popularize the short message business in person.

This time, he would perform his "survival experience in a snow-capped mountain. Zhang said that it is a marketing strategy as well as personal hobby.

"mountain climbing is a combination of mankind and nature. Many SOHU netizens like it and so do I. Climbing represents the spirit of SOHU. It is a perfect combination."

" I think it is important for one to have his own hobby. Some like playing balls while others like watching it. Some like cigar or red wine while others like cars. As to me, I like climbing mountains. This activity can allocate one a lonely time. While being in nature, you, consisted with genes, would unawaredly, evenly unsensibly communicate with the ancient spirit. I found this state good to people."

"Being CEO contrasts to climbing mountain." This contrast renders you to see your work and your present life from another angle. You would become more objective and confident because you are not a participant yourself. You should spare sometime to actively influence your sub-awareness by changing the surrounding you are in."

"In the office, all you want to do is to be a good leader and develop the organization. The specific environment determines the specific purpose and state. After one-month absence, in another period time you will set another goal and have a good rest so as to make good use of the present time."

"In 1995, when I come back to China, I always have a feeling of oxygen thirsty."

In the 1990s, when Zhang returned China, sitting in the car, he saw a highway in shenzhen and wanted to cry. He said that his return from U.S. was actually a transformation from the state of "oxygen deficiency" to the state of "oxygen thirsty", and he felt grateful and lucky these years.

In 2001, this CEO said, Internet was just like taking rolling-rocket which was full of ups and downs. Right now, Internet is more like climbing. Zhang said, "the change so far is that the company is more and more prosperous and I become more and more confident."

"SOHU is a company and it is also a cultural movement. It symbols a trend. So I cannot act like a conventional CEO but play a role as a trend and cultural leader." Zhang smiled, "maybe only in SOHU can I make it."

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