Olympic Games

(ALMATY, April 1) -- With the sacred flame for the Beijing Olympic Games on board, the specially chartered Air China plane arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan at 1:10 p.m. local time.

Jiang Xiaoyu, Executive Vice President of BOCOG, disembarked with the flame, showing the lantern to the crowd. Two members of the flame's escort team handed the flame over to representatives of the city.

Among those on hand to greet the flame were Chinese ambassador to Kazakhstan Zhang Xiyun, various Kazakhstan officials and overseas Chinese living in Kazakhstan. A brief but warm welcoming ceremony was held at the airport and flowers were presented to team members.

On April 2, the flame will pass through 80 torchbearers as it travels 19 kilometers in Almaty, known as the "City of Apples." This will be the first leg, outside of China, of a relay that will bring the flame around the world.

Under the theme "Journey of Harmony" and the slogan "Light the Passion Share the Dream", the Beijing Olympic torch will pass through 19 cities spread across five continents, and will make stops in Hong Kong, Macao, and all the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of China. The torch will also scale the world's highest peak, Mt. Qomolangma. The final stop of the relay comes on August 8, 2008, when the torch will be used to light the cauldron of the main stadium and start the Beijing Olympic Games.

The relay will last 130 days, involve over 20,000 torchbearers, and accumulate over 130 hours of flight time. The unprecedented journey will add yet another splendid chapter to Olympic history.

                            The chartered plane arrives

The terms arrived at the hotel 

Fire is a sacred symbol dating back to prehistoric times. In ancient Greece it symbolized the creation of the world, renewal and light. It was also the sacred symbol of Hephaestus, and a gift to the human race from Prometheus, who stole it from Zeus. At the centre of every city-state in ancient Greece there was an altar with an ever-burning fire and in every home the sacred Flame burned, dedicated to Hestia, goddess of the family.

Torch Relay races started in ancient Greece as religious rituals held at night. Soon they turned into a team athletic event, initially among adolescents, and further developed to become one of the most popular ancient sports. The enchanting power of fire was a source of inspiration. Sacred flames lit by the rays of the sun always burned in Olympia, in an altar dedicated to Hestia. Fire was ignited with the help of a concave mirror, which has the ability to concentrate the rays of the sun on a single spot. When the head priestess touched that point with the Torch, the Flame was lit.

The Ancient Greeks held a "lampadedromia" (the Greek word for Torch Relay), where athletes competed by passing on the Flame in a relay race to the finish line. In ancient Athens the ritual was performed during the Panathenaia fest, held every four years in honour of the goddess Athena. The strength and purity of the sacred Flame was preserved through its transportation by the quickest means; in this case a relay of Torchbearers. The Torch Relay carried the Flame from the altar of Prometheus to the altar of goddess Athena on the Acropolis. Forty youths from the ten Athenian tribes had to run a distance of 2.5 kilometers in total.

For the modern Olympic Games the sacred Flame is lit in Olympia by the head priestess, in the same way as in antiquity, and the ritual includes the athletes' oath. The Flame is then transmitted to the Torch of the first runner, and the journey of the Torch Relay begins –its magic still touching people today.

The priest of the Olympic Flame surrounded by Vestal Virgins performs a ceremony on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. \ Mandatory Credit: IOC Olympic Museum /Allsport

The Torch Relay and its modern revival

Torch Relay is a non-competitive replication of the ancient Flame relay and a symbolic celebration of the Olympic Games. In a prophetic speech at the end of the Stockholm Games, on June 27, 1912, Baron Pierre de Coubertin said:

"And now… great people have received the Torch… and have thereby undertaken to preserve and… quicken its precious Flame.

Lest our youth temporarily… let the Olympic Torch fall from their hands… other young people on the other side of the world are prepared to pick it up again."

The Torch Relay, as the opening of the Olympic celebration, was revived in the Berlin Olympiad in 1936 and since then the Torch Relay has preceded every Olympic Summer Games. Starting from Olympia and carried by the first runner, the young athlete Konstantinos Kondylis, the Flame traveled for the first time hand to hand until it reached the Berlin Olympic Stadium. Since, the Flame's magic has marked and has been identified with the beginning of the Games.

Olympiads that followed, the Torch Relay continued to play an important role, having been enriched with the characteristics and cultures of the host countries. The choice of the athlete who lights the Flame in the Olympic stadium is always symbolic to the host country.

For the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, the Flame followed a route in homage to the Greek and Roman civilizations. It was carried from Piraeus to Rome on the ship "Americo Vespucci" and passed through some of the best-known or important historical monuments of the two countries. It was the first time that the event was covered by television.

In the Mexico Olympiad in 1968, the Flame followed the route taken by Christopher Columbus, and the athletics champion Enriqueta Basilio was the first woman to light the Flame in the Olympic stadium. For the Montreal Games in 1976, the Flame traveled by satellite from Athens to Ottawa, and in the 1992 Games in Barcelona a Paralympic Archery medalist Antonio Rebollo lit the Flame in the stadium with a burning arrow.

In Sydney 2000, the Flame made its journey underwater in the Great Barrier Reef and covered the longest distance in the history of the Games so far.

BEIJING, March 31 -- China Chairman Hu Jintao lit a cauldron at Beijing's Tiananmen Square with the Olympic torch Monday morning, marking the official start of the round-the-world relay.

The ceremony kicked off on the square at the heart of Beijing two hours after a specially chartered Air China plane carrying the flame from Greece touched down at about 9 a.m.

Vice President Xi Jinping, member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), addressed the ceremony.

Zhou Yongkang, member of the nine-man Political Bureau Standing Committee, and other CPC and state leaders attended the ceremony.

Also present was International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission chairman Hein Verbruggen, who addressed the ceremony on behalf of IOC president Jacques Rogge.

The flame is scheduled to depart from Beijing on Tuesday for the Kazakh city of Almaty, the first stop in its global tour of 135 cities.

The relay will cover 137,000 kilometers in 130 days before the flame finally arrives at the National Stadium in Beijing on Aug 8,2008 for the opening ceremony.