The sun shone again after nightlong shower, when the Olympic Flame concluded its tour in Xining, the so-called "Summer Resort Capital of China", on Tuesday morning.
Torchbearer Wu Tianyi carries the Olympic torch during the torch relay in Xining, northwest China's Qinghai Province, June 24, 2008.
Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, is the last stop of the torch relay's 3-day leg in this vast, multi-ethnic northwest province. The flame then travels to Shanxi Province.
Thousands of young students and local residents came to the Central Square where the relay starts up early in the morning, holding a forest of the five star red flags and Beijing Olympic flags as well as a lower boscage of umbrellas.
It was still raining one hour before the scheduled starting time, making it much chillier in the city famous for its cool summer. However, people were still standing and hailing "Go Olympics, Go China". More and more people gathered along the street of the relay despite the shower.
"We've been waiting here since 5:30 a.m. to see the Flame," said Chen Yuanyuan, from the Century Vocational School.
Chen's hair was all caught wet in the shower but she and her classmates still held big national flags without an umbrella or a raincoat.
"We don't need umbrella. It's not easy to wave the national flag while holding that," said her classmate Guo Qingyu.
"We can't sleep last night, and we get up as early as four o'clock," said Ji Fangfang, a freshman from Qinghai University. "Even though it is raining now, we'll hold on because we are so excited to see the Flame."
Ji and her dormmate were dressed T-shirts printed with characters "Go, China". "We buy the T-shirts to greet the Flame, and we are so proud to be a Chinese," said she.
The starting ceremony began at 8 a.m. around. The rain abated when all the people paid a one-minute tribute to the victims in the May 12 quake in southwest Sichuan Province that claimed more than 69,000 lives.
The first torchbearer was Wu Tianyi, the first ethnic Tajik academician of China Academy of Engineering. Wu has spent nearly thirty years on treating patients with plateau diseases and contributed to "zero death" of plateau diseases during the construction of Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
He received the torch from Wang Jianjun, Party chief of Xining, and began to run at 8:13 a.m. amid loud cheers and hurrah. The rain almost stopped at the same time.
"I am so proud to be the first torchbearer. I will bring the Olympic Spirits to my work and contribute more to curing plateau disease," said he right before the start-up.
Torchbearer Qiu Yajun strikes a pose with the torch during the torch relay in Xining, northwest China's Qinghai Province, June 24, 2008.
A total of 291 torchbearers ran a distance of 8.8 kilometers in the relay. The torchbearers include major ethnic groups living in the city like Han, Hui, Tibetan, Tu and Mongolian.
The number of Xining's torchbearer is also the most compared with previous stops.
"When I was carrying the torch, I prayed for the quake-affected people and I hope the Flame would bring them strength and warmth," said Zhang Qiang, a neurosurgeon who just came back from relief work in Sichuan.
"Though I'd left the disaster area, I still want to pass our love from the Flame to the people and relief workers there," said he.
The last torchbearer, Li Chunxiu, a retired walking racer and bronze medallist in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, lightened the community cauldron at 10:15 a.m. in the closing ceremony in Xinning Square.
"I'm honored and proud to be a torchbearer," said Li. "It's my first time to see such a spectacle and I feel the passion and enthusiasm from people in my hometown."
"When I lightened the community caldron, the common aspiration of all ethnic groups in Qinghai as well as the Olympic Dream was also lightened," said she.
Located on the eastern edge of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with an average altitude of over 2200 meters (about 7217 feet), Xining serves as a vital transportation hub in northwest China where starts the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and Highway, the well-known "Sky Road".