Chinese rescuers have found the luggage left by two missing US mountain climbers in a remote village of southwest China's Sichuan Province, raising hopes they might soon be found.

 

A group of 10 rescuers found the luggage at the home of a villager during door-to-door inquiries in Lamaya Town near Genyen mountain on Friday evening.

 

They confirmed the luggage belonged to the climbers before reporting to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, on Saturday, deputy secretary general of the Sichuan Mountaineering Association Gao Min said on Monday.

 

The villager told the rescuers that Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff had hired him as a driver and left the luggage at his home on November 11 to go mountain climbing, saying they would be back on November 24.

 

However, they had never returned.

 

Gao said the new finding enabled the rescue work to focus on Lamaya, a remote town in Sichuan without access to telephone and mobile phone.

 

The 10 rescuers had to drive about 200 km on rough mountain roads to the seat of Litang county to report the news on Saturday, Gao said.

 

Gao said the rescuers had yet to climb the mountain to continue the search. "It's too dangerous as the weather is capricious now," he said.

 

Wang Yaguang, deputy head of Ganzi prefecture, said four local teams had checked hotels, homes that were approved for receiving foreign guests, stores, pastures, and herdsmen's homes throughout Litang county.

 

The climbers were last heard from in early November, and missed their return flights to the US on December 7.

 

It is reported that Boskoff said in an e-mail on November 7 to her adventure travel company Mountain Madness, "I'm having a great time and love the country, mountains and people here."

 

A day later in the last e-mail, Boskoff wrote, "We'll be leaving tomorrow, and we'll be back in Internet contact in two weeks."

 

The government of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on Friday published missing person notices in Chinese, Tibetan and English in all newspapers under its jurisdiction seeking any information on the climbers.

 

The notices said the pair were probably in Ganzi prefecture of Sichuan or in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan.

 

Adain, tourism head of Deqin county, Diqing prefecture, said local police had searched all the hostels, restaurants and villages along highways and found no sign of the two.

 

The Deqin county government had also posted missing person notices.

 

Yue Penggui, an employee of the Chengdu branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua News Agency earlier that he saw two foreigners, a man and a woman, on December 10 on the Gazi Mountain highway in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan.

 

Yue, who saw pictures of the missing climbers in local newspapers, believed they were Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff.

 

"The foreign man looked like an actor in an American film that I watched recently, so I remembered his face," said Yue.

 

He added that he was sure about the date since December 9 was his wife's birthday.

 

Charlie Fowler, 52, has been a mountain climber for 35 years and is an expert on climbing in southwestern China, while Christine Boskoff, 39, is among the top female high-altitude climbers in the world who has ascended six of the world's peaks over 7,800 meters, including Mount Qomolangma.

 

They should have registered their routes with local authorities as required by Chinese regulations, but failed to do so, making their whereabouts a total mystery, said secretary general of the Sichuan Mountaineering Association Lin Li.

 

Liu Jian, a well-known Chinese mountain climber who has scaled all the highest peaks in the world's seven continents, said he always registered routes and even the color and pattern of clothes with local authorities in foreign countries before mountain climbing, so that rescuers could find him if necessary.

 

Ealier local media reports said the US consulate general offered a reward of 30,000 yuan (US$3,800) for clues leading to the discovery of the climbers.

 

The 6,204-meter Genyen mountain, is the third highest peak in Sichuan and local Tibetans believe it is sacred. Genyen sightseeing zone covers almost 500 square kilometers. Apart from the snow-clad peak, the zone also features primeval forest, high-altitude grassland, a lake, hotsprings, temples and Tibetan communities.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2006)