Olympic torch relay photo exhibition opens August 22

Painting scroll depicting the torch relay

(BEIJING, August 22) -- The photo exhibition for the Beijing Olympic torchrelay.beijing2008.cn/en/index.shtml' target=_blank>torch relay, co-sponsored by BOCOG's Olympic Torch Relay Center and the Xinhua News Agency Photo Department, opens in Beijing on August 22. The photo exhibition will be held at Building 223, Huizhongbeili, to the east of the Olympic Green, from August 22 to September 17. Admission is free.

The exhibition contains more than 200 photos depicting the stages of the torch lighting ceremony at Olympia in Greece, the handover ceremony, the kick-off ceremony, the worldwide torch relay and the journey in China. Photos follow the sacred flame's "Journey of Harmony" as it reached the summit of the world, Mount Qomolangma (Everest), before finally arriving at the National Stadium for the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and lighting the main cauldron on August 8.

Also on display are presents from torch relay cities given to the Beijing Olympic Games.

The Beijing 2008 Olympic torch relay, with the participation of more than 21,800 torchbearers, lasting 130 days, passing through 19 cities in 19 countries and regions and 106 cities in China's 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and covering a distance of 150,000 kilometers, is remembered as the farthest reaching relay involving the largest number of participants in the history of the modern Olympic Movement.