Torchbearer Yang Jinghui shows the torch during the launching ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, on May7, 2008.
Torchbearer Yang Jinghui (R) lights the torch for the next torchbearer Liu Jiangnan during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou Wednesday morning, May 7, 2008.
The Beijing Olympic flame has started on its tour in Guangdong province. This is the flame's second provincial leg on the Chinese mainland.
Yang Jinghui, a diving champion at the Athens 2004 Olympics started the torch relay at Baiyun International Convention Center. He will be followed by 207 other torchbearers who will scale White Cloud Mountain, pass the Memorial Hall of Sun Yat-sen and the century-old pedestrian street of Beijing Road, and cross the Pearl River twice before reaching Tianhe Sports Stadium. Fencing world champion Dong Zhaozhi, the final torchbearer, will be there to light the cauldron.
The relay route covers 43 kilometers. It's the second time Guangzhou has hosted a torch relay for an international sports event. The city was also a torch relay route for the 2006 Doha Asian Games.
The Beijing Olympic flame will leave for Shenzhen, a coastal economic zone in Guangdong later on Wednesday.