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Torch arrives in China after troubled international tour

The arrival of the flame in the shattered town of Mianyang seemed to help raise the spirits of survivors, and torchbearers said they hoped it would give people courage.

  • AP
  • Published: 11:29 August 4, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Image Credit: AP
  • Yu Zhirong, a military official, who was one of the first rescuers into the recent China earthquake, carries the Olympic torch in Chengdu on Tuesday.

Mianyang: The Olympic flame arrived in China's quake disaster zone on Monday and will be carried around the track of a stadium that just weeks ago housed thousands of earthquake victims, as muted celebrations begin in one of the final stages of the global torch relay.

The arrival of the flame in the shattered town of Mianyang seemed to help raise the spirits of survivors, and torchbearers said they hoped it would give people courage.

The torch will be carried around the Jiu Zhou stadium, where thousands of earthquake refugees were bused to from wrecked towns across hilly stretches of Sichuan in the days after a massive 7.9-magnitude quake struck the western province on May 12, killing almost 70,000.
After Mianyang, the torch will go to the provincial capital of Chengdu on Tuesday, before heading to Beijing for Friday's opening ceremony of the games. The current segment had originally been scheduled for mid-June but was postponed to support disaster-relief efforts.

The province has made swift progress since the disaster, which left 5 million homeless.

Reconstruction is well under way, and new routines have been established in temporary settlements that have sprung up across the quake zone.

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