Follow that torch! The Olympic flame arrives in China
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After passing through Hong Kong, yesterday the symbolic Olympic torch arrived in Sanya, in the southern-China island province of Hainan. Its headline-making, controversy-provoking, international relay trip began in Greece at the end of March. The state-controlled China Daily reports that, in Sanya, “[m]ovie stars, sporting icons and a beauty queen added glitz and glamour to the first day of the Olympic torch relay,” and that “[t]hunderous applause greeted the torch as kung fu [movie] star Jackie Chan and a woman of the local Li ethnic group” carried the flame baton. It had arrived from Macao on Saturday night, marking “an end to a month-long, five-continent overseas odyssey” and the beginning of a relay route on the mainland that is scheduled to cover “113 cities in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions until the Games” start in Beijing on August 8. In Sanya, Yang Yang, a speed skater who is also China’s first-ever Winter Olympics gold-medal winner, ran 200 meters with the torch before handing it over to that other distinguished athlete, Li Lihui, the current president of the Bank of China. (The bank is the corporate sponsor of the torch-relay activities.) Yang offered a gracious comment to reporters, saying: “I believe that people who have cheered me will cheer with the same passion for athletes from around the world.” (See also Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
admin @ May 5, 2008