The city of Golmud will host the first stage of the Olympic torch relay through Qinghai province on Sunday.

Located in the northeast part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Golmud is home to the Hol Xil National Nature Reserve and its rare Tibetan antelopes, which are represented by the Olympic mascot Fuwa Yingying.

The relay is scheduled to last two hours and will involve 171 torchbearers. The city itself is a production base for Kunlun jade, which will be used in the medals for the Beijing Olympics.

Liu Shengchun, president of the Qinghai Province Jewel Association, who donated the jade, will run the first leg.

He will pass on the torch to Cega, a Qinghai native and ethnic Tibetan who has spent the past 10 years fighting poachers in the Hol Xil Nature Reserve. He is appropriately known as the "Guardian of Tibetan Antelopes".

Feng Jianping, head of the Qinghai sports bureau, said at a press conference on Friday that the majority of the relay legs will be run by Tibetan people, as Qinghai is the most Tibetan-populated province in China.

Almost 20 percent of its 5.5 million population are Tibetan, he said. "However, torchbearers have been selected from several ethnic groups, including Tibetan, Han, Hui, Sala and Mongolian."

"The proportion of runners at each stop will depend on the makeup of the local population."

The Olympic torch is scheduled to arrive in Golmud on Saturday night. After the relay there it will move on to Qinghai Lake, the largest salt water lake in China and the setting for the annual Tour De Qinghai Lake International Cycling Race.

(China Daily June 21, 2008)