IOC's Hein Verbruggen and BOCOG vice president Chen Zhili raise the Beijing torch. (ATR)(ATR) The longest Olympic Torch Relay in history will travel to 22 countries in five continents, including 2012 Olympic host London, Paris, San Francisco and 13 stops in Asia.
The route and the torch to be used in relay was unveiled in a spectacular ceremony Thursday night in Beijing, carried over national TV.
The relay will last 130 days and cover 137,000 km.
The relay will stop in Taiwan, but it will be the first leg of the domestic torch relay. That routing will put to test the torch relay motto, “Journey of Harmony” as Taipei government leaders have said they would not accept a routing that implied that Taiwan was part of China by being part of the domestic relay.
The flame will come from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and then travel from Taipei to Hong Kong.
After the flame lighting in Olympia on March 25, 2008, the relay The torch relay ceremony at the Millenium Monument. (ATR)will travel around Greece and then head to Beijing for a March 31 welcoming ceremony.
From Beijing, the international relay will begin with a stop in Almaty, Kazakhtsan, followed by European legs in St. Petersburg, London and Paris.
San Francisco is the only North American stop. Canada,The aluminum torch weighs 985 grams and is engraved with a lucky cloud symbol. which will host the 2010 Winter Games, has been left out.
Buenos Aires will host the relay in South America.
Then the relay travels across the South Atlantic Ocean to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, the only relay stop in Africa.
Asian stops will include Muscat, Islamabad, Mumbai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, before a jog south to Canberra, Australia.
The relay returns to Asia with a stop in Nagano, followed by Seoul, Pyeongyang, and Ho Chi Minh City.
The relay will spend 100 days traveling to China in the lead-up to opening ceremony August 8.
Sometime in May, when weather conditions are right, a team of climbers will attempt to bring the torch to the summit of Mt. Everest.
The sponsors of the relay include Coca-Cola, Samsung and Lenovo.
The relay and the torch were unveiled in a ceremony at the Millennium Monument in west Beijing, before an invited audience of 2008 guests.
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