A mountaineering fan died of altitude disease on Tuesday on his return trip from the Mount Qomolangma.

Wu Wenhong, from east China's Jiangsu Province, died at around 4:00 AM at 8,750 meters of the world's tallest peak, said sources with the mountaineering association in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Wu reached the peak of Qomolangma on Monday morning, but on the return trip the amateur climber was hit by bad altitude disease which put his life in serious danger.

The 8,300-metet camp sent a rescue team consisting of three professional mountaineers for help, but Wu failed to recover after a night's rescue efforts.

"It happened at a high altitude with extreme cold and hard path, so our rescue work was met with a lot of trouble. We sent professional mountaineers with oxygen, tent and camp stove, but

it all proved useless," said Nima Ciren, head of the Tibet Mountaineering Team.

A total of 24 Chinese amateur climbers were attracted to scale the Mt. Qomolangma this season.

The first batch, including eight climbing fans, reached the top on Sunday and came back to the base camp safely.

The second team of 12 climbers launched the assault to the 8844.43-meter peak on Monday morning. All the other climbers returned safely.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2009)