Thousands of local women took to the streets clad in traditional Manchu gege (princess) attire - 10-cm-long, healed "horse shoes"; mesh hair accessories; and high-collared cloaks with side slits - to greet the Olympic torch when it passed through Jilin provinces' Songyuan and Jilin cities yesterday.
Because both cities were cradles of the Manchu nationality, they highlighted local tradition in their relay celebration.
The relay started at 7 am in Songyuan, which gained municipal status in 1992.
Three rivers - the Songhua, the Nenjiang and the Lalin - run through the city, which has long been called "an oil city, a grain store, a meat store, a sea of trees and a place of fish".
Bordering the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Liaoning province, Songyuan is also a major hub for ethnic Mongolians.
In addition to a grand dance performance by 1,000 Manchu gege, the city's relay ceremony featured a group performance by 2,008 Mongolian matouqin (a local two-stringed fiddle) players, aged from 10 to 65, setting a new Guinness World Record.
"The matouqin is a unique cultural symbol for us Mongolians," 46-year-old performer Narisu said. "We wish that such traditional culture would be passed down from generation to generation, just like the torch's flame is passed from one place to another."
The first torchbearer of the relay's Jilin leg was Songyuan's first mayor Li Shu, from whom the city's current mayor, Sun Hongzhi, took the flame. Sun said the order of the relay members demonstrated the city's determination to pass on the Olympic spirit and its sense of hope for a better future.
In the afternoon, the relay began beneath a light drizzle in Jilin city. The route mostly snaked along the banks of the Songhua River, from which Jilin got the nickname Jiangcheng (River City).
The city is home to more Manchu than any other in China - 225,000, or about 5 percent of the total.
Today, the torch will travel through Yanji, which has more Koreans than any other city in the country.
Source: China Daily
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