Chinese scientists are establishing a meteorological monitoring station at an altitude of 8800 metres on Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, on the China-Nepal border.

The 13 members of the scientific research team started the trek towards a 8300m base camp on Everest, known locally as Mount Qomolangma, from a 7028m camp on Tuesday morning and reached the camp in the afternoon. They went on the last section of the arduous journey up on Wednesday morning.

If the station is established successfully, it will replace the one at an altitude of 8430m set up by the British and US scientists on the south side of the mountain in 2019, to be the world's highest of its kind, according to the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Including the highest, eight elevation gradient meteorological stations will be set up on Everest, one of the main tasks in China's new comprehensive scientific expedition on the world's highest peak at the height of 8848.86m.

Three meteorological stations were established at 7028m, 7790m and 8300m earlier this year on the north side of the mountain, bringing the total number of operational weather stations between the altitudes between 5200m and 8300m to seven. Last year, four stations at sea levels of 6500m, 5800m, 5400m and 5200m were set up.

The new comprehensive scientific expedition on Mount Everest is part of China's second scientific research survey on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which started in 2017.

The eight stations will collect the wind speed and wind direction data, as well as relative humidity on the north side of Everest, and the elevation gradient meteorological station system is of great significance for monitoring the melting glaciers and mountain snow at the high altitudes.

The expedition team will also set up glacier radar and measure the thickness of snow and ice at the summit of the mountain.