From The Hindu, July 28, 1975: Chinese theory on height of Everest

Tokyo, July 27: The exact height of the world’s highest peak Mount Everest is 8,848.13 metres or 34 metres lower than the hitherto accepted figure of 3,882 metres. This has been determined by a team of Chinese surveyors and cartographers who accompanied the Chinese mountaineering expedition which reportedly ascended the peak last May, according to the official Hsinhua News Agency which gave some details of how the new height of Everest was determined in a Peking despatch on Thursday.

The report said the Chinese surveyors and cartographers working in the face of extremely difficult conditions had succeeded in extending the national geodestic survey control network to the east main and west Rongbuk glaciers on the north slope of the mountain. They had carried out triangular traverse astronomical and gravity surveys at attitudes of 5,000 to 7,000 metres above sea level and counter checked the precise levelling of the area between Tingri and the Rongbuk monastery thus providing a reliable control basis for determining the height of Everest.

After a surveying pole had been erected on the summit and the thickness of the accumulated snow there measured, the surveyors and cartographers had proceeded to conduct simultaneous observation and survey from ten triangulation points located 7 to 21 km. from the summit at altitudes of 5,600 to 6,300 metres. This operation had resulted in a complete set of data for mapping out the geographical location and the height of the peak.