When the Olympic torch team was given the green light late Wednesday night to bring the sacred flame atop Mount Qomalongma the following morning, 51-year-old housemaid Peng Haiyan was oblivious to the news and all else around her.
Already on a bus for an hour from her home near the Buji customs checkpoint, Peng was single-mindedly set on catching the torch relay in Shenzhen's Citizen's Center instead.
"I thought I'd better get a good sleep in the city first to wake up early for the relay," said Peng, an administration staff at a factory in Yueyang, Hunan province, before she arrived in Shenzhen to live and work four years ago.
But Peng had to wait four hours more from the scheduled 8 am start of the relay in the city - only because the torch team accomplished the amazing feat of scaling the world's highest mountain yesterday morning.
Eagerly anticipating the torch's arrival in the city, Peng believed that the torch, adorned with the "Lucky Clouds" design, was an auspicious symbol that would bring blessings to the people and the country.
"The torch relay in Shenzhen is even more auspicious since it took place on the 8th day of the month and started at 8 am," Peng said.
"We Chinese believe that eight is an auspicious number. The double eights only add to the luck the torches are set to bring us."
Two days before the relay, Peng called her sister in her hometown of Yueyang.
"I asked her to come to Shenzhen if the torch doesn't go to Yueyang as scheduled," Peng said.
"It would have been a terrible pity if she missed it."
By 9 am yesterday, Peng had been waiting at the Citizen's Center for about two hours, and although she still had no idea why the torch was late, her high spirits were not dampened in the slightest way.
"If there is a delay, there must be a justified reason," Peng said.
"The torch relay here is a chance you need to wait 10,000 years for. Since we've been waiting so long, why should it bother me to wait for another few more hours?"
When she was finally told of the reason for the delay, Peng was ecstatic.
"That was wonderful," Peng said.
"The torch actually reached the peak of Qomolangma!"
(China Daily May 9, 2008)