Han Zheng declared the official start of the torch relay of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games, holding high the torch before handing it to Luo Zhihuan, who then ran into the Olympic Forest Park.
Luo, 81, is China's first world champion in winter sports as the Gold medalist of the men's 1500m at the World Speed Skating Championships held in Karuizawa, Japan in 1963.
Jing Haipeng, captain of the Chinese Astronaut Corps, took up the flame as the second torchbearer.
The 77-year-old Chinese aerospace expert and consultant to China's lunar exploration program Ye Peijian also participated in the relay.
"I am very honored and happy to participate in the torch relay… We Chinese team of astronauts have similar spirit of the Olympics and wishes to pass it on generation after generation," Ye was quoted by the CCTV as saying.
Memetjan Wumer, who came to Beijing from Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and who was awarded the July 1 Medal, the highest honor given by the Communist Party of China, is the 4th torchbearer of the relay.
Zhang Boli, 73, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and head of the Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), who has played an important role in the fight against COVID-19 in Wuhan, held the flame, running through the Olympic Forest Park and passed the torch to Tong Zhaohui, another top medical adviser who also participated in the same battle in Wuhan.
