The Beijing Games torch relay is the longest and most ambitious ever planned

Not all Chinese got to watch the lighting up the Olympic flame before it began its tour, but they celebrated it in different ways to impress the same excitement.

“The Olympic Flame! We’ll await it here right in the Bird Nest,” said engineer Rong Zhihong, who climbs every day on the in-construction National Stadium, nicknamed the Bird Nest with its unique outline, and oversees the job of washing its roof.

“I knew exactly the time when the Olympic flame lit up (Monday) and longed for the moment very much. But my job won’t let me leave to watch it on the TV. Maybe I’ll follow it later through the Internet or tomorrow’s newspaper reports,” she added.

Most of her colleagues had no time to see the broadcast of the flame lighting up ceremony as the construction of the National Stadium gears up ahead of the Olympic test event in April.

“Constructors here run day and night and they all give the best wishes to the torch relay and the coming Games with effective work,” said Zhou Jie, a senior official of the Bird Nest’s construction company.

Participants in the organisations of the Beijing Olympic Games, due August 8-24, held special feelings towards the flame lighting moment. “The Olympic flame launched the torch relay, the Beijing Games is coming closer, and our job enters the new phrase. We’ll go all out for it,” said Dong Su, the vice photo manager of the Beijing Organising Committee of Olympic Games (BOCOG) media service team. Zhao Dongcai, one of the Beijing Olympic torch designers, echoed that she and her volunteer mates have all been ready for serving the Games.

“I could not be more excited and honoured to see the torch designed by our team lit up in Ancient Olympia,” she said. “I hope the Games come to open here in Beijing, the sooner the better, and let me give the best service to athletes and officials from all over the world and show them how warm-hearted and friendly the Beijingers are.”

The Olympic flame lighting ceremony also spirited the commoners. “It will arrive at Beijing in about 100 days to open the Games and I hope friends from foreign countries and regions could take residence in my house,” said citizen Wang Qi, whose family live in the Asian Games Village, near the central Olympic sites.

Applause and cheers could be heard all over the city and people in shopping malls crowded in front of every counter selling TV sets to watch the broadcast of the ceremony. “It recalled to me the moment when Beijing won the bid to host the 2008 Games,” said Yang Yu, an Internet technology worker in Beijing. “We’ve looked forward to the Olympics for seven years and it’s finally coming soon.”

Meanwhile, Shenyang, co-host of the Games, is eying the homecoming torch relay and has vowed to go all out to make it a perfect prep work for the upcoming showpiece event.
“As a member of the organising committee, I feel so proud and stressed as well on the lighting of the Olympic flame,” said Li Rongxi, a key official with the Shenyang soccer competition organising committee. “Anyway, a good start makes half the success.”

Northeast China’s Shenyang, witnessing the Chinese men’s soccer team reaching the finals of the 2002 World Cup for the first time in history, is one of the soccer competition co-host venues. Among others are Tianjin, Shanghai and Qinhuangdao.

“Now the Beijing Olympics are 137 days out and the competitions here are 135 out, so we will keep on working in the countdown days and will pay attention to every single detail in build-up to the event,” said Li, who is also the director of the Shenyang Sports Bureau.
The Beijing Games torch relay is the longest and most ambitious ever planned, lasting 130 days and covering 137,000 kilometres worldwide.