Everest Base Camp (5150m) was first used by the 1924 British Everest expedition. Tourists are no longer allowed to visit the climbing expedition base camp, so most people have their photo taken at the ‘Mt Qomolangma Base Camp’ marker instead.
In February 2019 Tibet's Everest Base Camp was closed to all visitors to allow for continued clean-up and environmental restoration efforts, begun in 2018 with the removal of 8 tonnes of garbage. The climbers' base camp reopened in mid-2019 for those with climbing permits, and a new camp for non-climbing tourists has been put into operation beside Ronghpu Monastery, where the mountain views are essentially the same as those from the previous tourist camp.
Tour vehicles are now allowed only as far as the new Everest Base Camp tourist centre in the Tibetan village of Chödzom, where travellers must change for government-managed eco-friendly buses (¥120 round-trip) for the remaining 20km to Ronghpu Monastery.
