(ATR) A winter Olympic champion, movie stars and a bank president were among the 208 torchbearers who carried the Olympic flame on the first leg of the relay across mainland China.
Yang Yang, the Winter Olympics speedskating champion was the first torchbearer in Sanya, a tropical resort in Hainan Province on the South China Sea.
She passed the flame to Li Lihui, president of Bank of China, the number-one national sponsor of the Beijing Olympics.
The day long run through Sanya was peaceful and flanked with cheering crowds.
The only noticeable glitch came during the ceremony for the start of the relay, when the torch went out as it was passed along a row of dignitaries. The flame was quickly relit by one of the relay attendants.
Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan was the last torchbearer.
The relay will spend the next three days in Hainan before heading to Guangdong Province.
The three month journey through China is expected to be absent the protests that marred stages of the international torch relay in the past month.
"Being Chinese, it's not easy," acknowledged torchbearer Charles Zhang at a news conference after he ran in the relay. Zhang is the president of Sohu.com, the internet portal that is a sponsor of Beijing 2008.
Written by Ed Hula .
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