The Beijing Olympic torch will be lit by the sun's rays in ancient
Olympia, Greece, on March 24, according to the Beijing Organizing
Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
China Travel"We will continue with the traditional way to kindle the flame as
it symbolizes theChina Tour
purity
of the Olympic flame," Li Ping, spokeswoman for BOCOG's Olympic
Torch Relay Center, was quoted as saying by Beijing Morning Post
overChina Tour the weekend.
"The flame is lit using a
concave mirror Beijing Travel to focus the rays of the sun, and a
back-up
fire will be prepared the same way during the rehearsal phase in
case of cloudy weather on March 24," Beijing Travel she added.
Li quoted Greek mythology that says the Sun God Apollo originally
lit the Olympic flame to bring brightness and warmth to human
beings.
The flame will be handed over to BOCOG at 3 pm on March 30 at the
Panathenian Stadium in Athens, Beijing Tour the city where the first modern
Olympics Games was held in 1896.
After a reception in Beijing on March 31, the Olympic flame will
begin its global tour of 135 cities around the world on April 1.
The relay will cover 137,000 km in 130 days before the flame
finally arrives at the National Stadium in Beijing on Aug 8, 2008
for the opening ceremony.
The highlight of the torch relay, China Tour involving a total of 21,780
torchbearers, will be an attempt to take the Olympic flame to the
summit of Mount Qomolangma, known as Mt Everest in the West, in
May. Li said the list of some 19,400 Beijing Tour torchbearers and the roadmap
for the torch relay over 700 cities in China would be made public
soon.
from:China Travel news!