The Olympic torch was taken part way up the Great Wall yesterday watched by a giant yellow dragon.
The dragon linked four watchtowers situated north of Badaling's Guancheng Square.
It was formed by 2,008 middle school students dressed in yellow uniforms, waving yellow fans. With the craggy Jundu mountains in the backdrop, the scene resembled an ancient Chinese painting.
At 7:15 am, after a brief ceremony at the Badaling section of the UNESCO world heritage site, hundreds of people cheered as the first torchbearer, Li Zhonghua, began to climb the wall from the head of the dragon.
"If you don't go to the Great Wall, then you're not a real man," Li, one of China's best test pilots, said, quoting late Chairman Mao Zedong.
Building of the Great Wall started in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), to keep out nomadic invaders from the north, and most of it was completed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
The 6,700-km-long wall stretches from the east to the west of north China, through five provinces..
It has been visited by countless foreign dignitaries, including former US President Richard Nixon in 1972.
The torch was paraded through the entire length of the wall's dragon. Its head kept moving from side to side, while its eyes kept blinking.
Along the route, music blared from speakers together with the beating of drums and the clashing of cymbals.
"We have traveled to so many cities, from Olympia to the Great Wall, and have cried many times. This, too, is a very emotional occasion, especially when you see the reaction of the crowds," Lu Xiaohong, a BOCOG official who traveled with the torch around the world, said.
Source: China Daily
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