The Beijing Olympic torch will be lit by the sun's rays in ancient Olympia, Greece, on March 24, according to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
Li Ping is spokeswoman for BOCOG's Olympic Torch Relay Center. She said, "We will continue the traditional way to kindle the flame as it symbolizes the purity of the Olympic flame," in the Beijing Morning Post over the weekend.
"The flame is lit using a concave mirror to focus the rays of the sun, and a back-up fire will be prepared the same way during the rehearsal phase in case of cloudy weather on March 24," she added.
Li quoted Greek mythology, which says the Sun God Apollo originally lit the Olympic flame to bring brightness and warmth to human beings.
The flame will be handed over to BOCOG at 3 pm on March 30 at the Panathenian Stadium in Athens, the site of the first modern Olympics Games in 1896.
After a reception in Beijing on March 31, the Olympic flame will begin its global tour of 135 cities around the world on April 1. The relay will cover 137,000 km in 130 days before the flame finally arrives at the National Stadium in Beijing on Aug 8, 2008 for the opening ceremony.
The highlight of the torch relay, involving a total of 21,780 torchbearers, will be an attempt to take the Olympic flame to the summit of Mount Qomolangma, known as Mt Everest in the West, in May. Li said the list of some 19,400 torchbearers and the roadmap for the torch relay over 700 cities in China would be made public soon.
Questions:
1.How long will the Olympic relay be?
2.How many torchbearers will be involved in the torch relay?
Answers:
1.137,000 kilometers.
2.21,780
（英语点津 Celene 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Jonathan Stewart is a media and journalism expert from the United States with four years of experience as a writer and instructor. He accepted a foreign expert position with chinadaily.com.cn in June 2007 following the completion of his Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics.
