Miao people to bathe in Olympic light

By Wang Shanshan
Updated: 2008-06-12 08:59

GUIYANG: Villagers of the Miao ethnic group will welcome the Olympic torch relay in Guizhou province over the next three days.

Ethnic inhabitants of Shangrila, Yunnan province, cheer for the torch relay June 11. [Xinhua]

Today, the relay will pass through Guiyang, the provincial capital, Kaili in southeastern Guizhou tomorrow and Zunyi in the northern mountains on Saturday.

The relay will start from Guiyang's People's Square in the heart of the city, cross through old districts before arriving at the newly developed Jinyang district.

"We want to show a bubbling economy as well as a relaxing summer resort," Wang Wenyang, deputy secretary-general of the Guizhou provincial government, said.

Ouyang Ziyuan, a cosmochemist at the Institute of Gerochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guiyang, will be the first of the 208 torchbearers to run.

He is the chief scientist of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program known as Chang'e.

In Kaili, the relay will start from the village of Langde of the Miao ethnic group in Leishan county.

Gymnast Lin Li will be the first of the 208 runners and will weave among centuries-old wooden houses on a small stone path.

The following torchbearers will pass an ancient wooden bridge covered over to provide farmers shelter during the rainy season.

They are then scheduled to run along a 2 km path between rice fields where Miao farmers will go about their daily toil.

The Kaili leg will continue along the Bala River and cross three other villages, namely Knife, Southern Flower and Three Trees. It will then proceed through Kaili's downtown before ending at the Kaili Ethnic Stadium.

In Zunyi the relay will start from the historic site of the Red Army's 1935 Long March conference, pass through old districts before closing at a development zone.

Wang Daojin, a 93-year-old retiree who used to be a member of the Red Army, will lead off the Zunyi team.