Olympic torch relay continues in quake-battered Sichuan Province
4/8/2008 17:03
The Olympic torch reached the city of Leshan, a major Buddhist resort and
home to the world's tallest ancient Buddha statue, today, the second leg of its
tour across the quake-battered Sichuan Province.
The Leshan leg of the torch
relay began at 7:38 am today. Tan Guoqiang, a primary school teacher from
Wenchuan County, epicenter of the devastating quake of May 12, ignited the
flame.
Tan, 44, was honored a hero for searching more than 70 hours in the
rubble of school buildings for lives, despite the grief over the death of his
wife in the quake.
He is one of the 29 quake fighting heroes on the list of
more than 800 torchbearers in Sichuan.
Former Olympic diving champion Gao Min
is one of the the 185 torchbearers in Leshan.
Crowds of people spent the
previous night on a square close to Emeishan Mountain, the starting point of the
7.5-kilometer torch relay, waiting to share the excitement.
The relay route
was festooned with Chinese national flags and the Olympic flags, and onlookers
shouted "Go, go, China; Go, go, Olympics" from either side of the
street.
Wang Jian, a master of Chinese Wushu and a torchbearer, said he hoped
the Beijing Games could provide an opportunity for the worldwide revival of
Chinese martial arts. "My hometown is known for Wushu, and I hope Wushu would be
included in the Olympic Games someday."
Wang, 40, followed his father to
learn Wushu at six and later founded a school of martial arts in Leshan. He has
carried out intensive research in the field and published many essays on the
history of Wushu in Leshan.
The torch relay will continue in Mianyang and
Guanghan this afternoon and in the provincial capital Chengdu tomorrow.
The
8.0-magnitude earthquake seriously battered Sichuan. The death toll was nearly
70,000, while about 20,000 others are reported missing.
The quake resulted in
the closure of almost all tourist destinations in Sichuan though little damage
was done to their infrastructure. The Buddha statue and the Emeishan Mountain, a
world heritage site, reopened to tourists in mid-June.
After the earthquake,
the Beijing Olympic organizing committee rescheduled the time and relay route
and decided to pass the Olympic torch through Sichuan from Aug. 3 to 5, instead
of the initially planned June.
After Sichuan, the Olympic flame will arrive
in the host city Beijing on Aug. 6, two days prior to the opening of the
Games.
Xinhua
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