China's Olympic weightlifting champion Tang Lingsheng will be the first bearer at the 2008 Olympic torch relay's Guangxi leg on Friday, a government official said Thursday.

Tang, the 26th Olympic Games' weightlifting champion, will start the 3-day torch relay from Guilin, a world famous tourist city.

The torch will pass through Bose, where China's late leader Deng Xiaoping led the famous Bose Uprising in 1929, and finally tour Nanning, the provincial capital in Beibu Bay Economic Zone which is China's first international economic center with ASEAN.

The 23rd Olympic Games' weightlifting champion Wu Shude is set to be the first bearer of Nanning leg.

A total of 624 torchbearers from all walks of life will run the Guangxi leg, with the oldest being 92 years old and the youngest 14.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2008)