China is confident that the Olympic flame will successfully weather strong gales, downpours, sudden hail and thin air to burn brightly and beautifully on the world's tallest peak of Mount Qomolangma, a technician said on Thursday.
Deputy general manager Xue Li with the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, designer of the torch for the 2008 Games, said a lab had been established to develop a special Olympic flame combustion system that could overcome adverse natural conditions such as thin air, gales, glaring sunlight and hailstones.
"The flame, about 20 to 30 centimeters high, should be bright and very pleasant to eyes," said the delegate to the ongoing 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
The flame is designed to be able to weather strong storms with a wind speed of 24.5 to 32.6 meters per second and heavy rain with per-hour precipitation of more than 50 millimeters, he said.
Xue said that besides drawing upon the experiences from previous Olympic flame designs, Chinese technicians have also made a number of innovations to make sure the flame could survive wind and storms on top of the peak known to westerners as Mount Everest - which stands 8844.43 meters above sea level according to a Chinese survey conducted in 2005.
He also guaranteed that the fuel for the Olympic torch would be well stored and pollution-free.
To host an impressive and successful Olympics, China has promised the world it would relay the torch from Olympia, Greece, the cradle of the Olympiad, to Mount Qomolangma upon its application to host the four-yearly event.
"We will live up to the commitment," head of the General Administration of Sport Liu Peng, also a delegate to the Party congress said. The Communist Party of China blended the 2008 Games and the Paralymics in Beijing into its five-yearly political report at the congress, vowing to host these events successfully.
Liu said that apart from the technological advancements to protect the Olympic flame, China also enjoyed an advantage in mountaineering, a sport with more than 40 years of history in China.
"Many Chinese athletes, men and women, have climbed up Mount Everest. Some have reached the peak more than once. The Tibetan mountaineering team has to date climbed all the world's 14 mountains that exceed 8,000 meters," Liu told journalists at a briefing on Wednesday.
Technical difficulties on relaying TV signals on the "roof of the world" have also been solved, he said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2007)
