THE Olympic torch on its first-day relay in Beijing will travel 16.4 km in just over four hours with 433 torchbearers, the organizer said in the capital city yesterday.
The relay will start from the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City today, Sun Xuecai, deputy director of the city sport department and deputy chairman of the organizing committee of the Olympic torch relay in Beijing, told a press conference.
The first torch bearer will be Yang Liwei, the country’s first astronaut, he said.
At the ceremony to be held at the Meridian Gate, Liu Qi, the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games (BOCOG) president, will hand over the Olympic flame to Yang, marking the start of the relay.
On the first day of its three-day relay in Beijing, the torch will travel through seven districts, passing city landmarks, including Tiananmen Square, the egg-shaped National Center for the Performing Arts and Qianmen (the Southern Gate). It will end at the Temple of Heaven, where a grand ceremony will be held including performances by about 1,320 dancers to receive the torch. Of the torchbearers, 29 will be foreigners, two from Hong Kong and one from Taiwan, Sun said.
They include celebrities and ordinary people with Yao Ming, China’s most popular basketball star, the ninth bearer, he confirmed.
Zhang Yimou, the famed film director and chief director of the Games’ opening and closing ceremonies, will also carry the torch today.
The torch relay in quake-hit Sichuan Province ended yesterday.(Xinhua)