Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

Torchbearer Zhang Jinsong runs with the torch during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay in Ningbo. The Olympic torch relay resumes today in the ancient port city of Ningbo after a three-day pause out of respect for victims of the earthquake.(Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, May 22 -- The Olympic torch relay resumes today in the ancient port city of Ningbo after a three-day pause out of respect for victims of the earthquake.

    Since the nationwide mourning began on Monday, the Olympic flame has been kept at Daxie Island off the coast of Ningbo.

    "The timetable for the relay will be changed in order to make up for the three days, but it has not been decided what changes will be made," Li Ping, spokeswoman for the torch relay team, said.

    The relay will begin this morning and will go on to Jiaxing in the afternoon. A total of 208 torchbearers will take part in the two events.

    In Ningbo, it will start from the Beilun Harbor and pass by the 155-year-old Qing'an Assembly Hall where Matsu, or the Goddess of the Sea, is worshipped, and the 447-year-old private library of the Tianyi Pavilion.

    The relay will then cross the 36-km-long Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the longest sea bridge in the world.

    A total of 56 torchbearers will take part, each covering a distance of 5.6 km.

    At the end of the bridge lies the 1,800-year-old city of Jiaxing.

    The relay will pass along the Grand Canal linking Beijing and Hangzhou, which was built in 604 AD, and the Nanhu Lake where the Communist Party of China had its first national congress in July 1921.

    (Source: China Daily)

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