On March 19 at 3 PM, Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) and Qu Yingpu, spokesman from the Olympic Torch Relay Center briefed the world media on the torch relay's program and the selection of torchbearers. They also introduced about the service guide of the Olympic torch relay for media. China.org.cn gave a live coverage of the press conference.

According to Jiang Xiaoyu, a lighting ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games will be held in Olympia, Greece on March 24, after which a six-day relay is to kick off in Greece. The Olympic flame handover ceremony will be held in Athens on March 30. The BOCOG delegation, headed by Mr. Liu Qi, Member of the Political Bureau of CPC Central Committee, Secretary of CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and President of BOCOG is to take part in the two events.

The flame will arrive in Beijing on March 31, where a grand ceremony will be held to welcome the flame and officially launch the torch relay of the 2008 Olympic Games.

With the "Journey of Harmony" as its theme and "Light the Passion, Share the Dream" as its slogan, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay will cover the five continents to disseminate the Olympic ideal of "placing sports at the service of harmonious development of man" while highlighting Chinese people's aspiration for a harmonious world with lasting peace and universal prosperity.

The torch relay is expected to convey the message of friendship, peace and harmony. It will last for 130 days with the participation of over 20,000 torchbearers and 5,000 escort runners. It will be the longest torch relay in the history of Olympic Games with the most participants. Millions of people will join, watch and experience this magnificent celebration of mankind.

Jiang also briefed the media on the selection of torchbearers. The torchbearers, aged from 14 to 94, are from all ethnic groups in China. Foreigners, compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese who have contributed enormously to China's reform and development are also included in the torchbearer team. After today's press conference, all the main selection organizations will release the confirmed name lists of torchbearers.

According to Jiang, the 21 relay cities outside the mainland of China boast lots of highlights. The flame is expected to reach a number of world-famous sites of interest, for example, the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg, British Museum in London, Eiffel Tower of France, Red Fort in New Delhi, Bangkok Grand Palace, Insadong of Seoul and the Hong Kong Victoria Harbor.

Another highlight of the torch relay will be its ascent to the peak of Mt. Qomolangma.The torch bearers' team for the Qomolangma leg will carry the torch to ascend the peak in any possible day with favorable weather conditions in May. After the ascent, the flame will be kept in Lhasa and then join the flame which arrives in Lhasa during the relay in the mainland of China.

The Olympic flame, after the relay outside the mainland of China, will arrive in Sanya city of Hainan Province on May 3rd. From May 4 onwards, BOCOG torch relay operation team will take the flame to 113 cities and areas in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, according to the pre-planned route by transport means such as airplane, railway and road. The flame is planned to stay in each province (autonomous region or municipality) for an average of three days. Relay will last for four days in each of Sichuan, Henan, Shandong and Guangdong provinces (where the population is over 80 million) and two days in Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing respectively. The flame will be back in Beijing on August 6 and relayed within the city for three days. On the evening of August 8, the flame will reach the main stadium of the Beijing Olympic Games opening ceremony and light up the main cauldron, which will be on until the closing ceremony of the Games. The relay within the mainland of China is to last for 97 days with over 19,000 torchbearers, covering more than 40,000 km.

At the press conference, Qu Yingpu, spokesman from the Olympic Torch Relay Center also introduced about the service guide of the Olympic torch relay for media. The BOCOG will offer official signals to media worldwide, following the practice in the previous Games. Both the signals and footages will be sent through satellite networks worldwide and be available for all the media. In addition, the official signals will be sent through the GVW of the APTN as well. Furthermore, the official pictures, press releases and audio signals of each relay day will be available on the torch relay official website for free download.

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(china.org.cn March 19, 2008)