Following on the success of its Olympic Torch Relay Run in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the Olympic Flame for the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games is now touring Huizhou in China's southern province of Guangdong.

A starting ceremony for the Beijing Olympics torch relay was held at Huizhou Stadium at eight o'clock on Friday morning.

The second torchbearer was Liang Wenbo, one of China's rising snooker players.

The stadium in the city of Huizhou, nicknamed "the city of the goose" was built in the shape of a goose. Huizhou is scheduled to hold a sports event at the provincial level in 2010.

The first torchbearer was the local swimming champion, Chen Xiujun. She finished first in the women's two-hundred-meter backstroke at China's national games in 2001. Chen also took fourth place in the four-by-one hundred medley at the 2004 Athens Games.

A total of 208 torchbearers take part in the Olympic Torch Relay. The relay route stretches nearly 31-kilometers long. It covers lake-encircling scenery, avenues, trees, and mountains -- displaying an overall scene of "half landscape and half lake" in the city. The event is scheduled to end at five o'clock in the afternoon.

During the past 30 years of reform and opening-up, Huizhou has been an economic powerhouse in Guangdong. Manufacturing and research centers of world-famous brands, including General Electric, SONY, Samsung and Lenovo are all based in Huizhou. The city also boasts the world's largest batteryproducer as well as Asia's biggest telephone manufacturer.

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