The sacred flame of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on early Sunday 20 April 2008 arrived in the Malaysia capital of Kuala Lumpur, the 13th leg of its global torch relay on early Sunday.
A chartered plane carrying the flame, which was ignited on March 24 in ancient Olympia of Greece, landed on the Kuala Lumpur international airport at local time 02:30 a.m. local time (1830GMT) from Bangkok, capital of Thailand.
Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games (BOCOG), carried the lantern of the flame and walked off the plane.
Upon arrival at the airport, Jiang and the flame received a warm welcome by a cheering crowd,with overseas Chinese in Malaysia with chinese and olympic flag reached at the airport and among whom are Deputy president of the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) M. Jegathesan and OCM honorary secretary Sieh Kok Chi.
Chinese ambassador to Malaysia Cheng Yonghua also came to the airport to welcome the flame of the Beijing Olympics, which is scheduled to be held this August.
The Kuala Lumpur leg of the torch relay, which will be started from Dataran Merdeka and concluded at the famous "Twins Tower" KLCC, will start on Monday afternoon. Eighty torch bearers will take part in the relay.
The 16-km torch relay would start from the Merdeka Square (Independence Square), a historic site where the independence of Malaysia was announced in 1957, and end at the Twin Towers, a landmark for the modern city of Kuala Lumpur, said OCM Deputy president M. Jegathesan.
The selection of the two sites is aimed at showing the rapid growth of Kuala Lumpur since Malaysia became independent, he told reporters at the OCM headquarters.
Jegathesan said that a total of 80 torchbearers will run in the relay which is scheduled to take place next Monday, and the concerned authorities have worked out necessary preparations for it, including contingency measures in case it will rain.
OCM's honorary secretary Sieh Kok Chi said that the torch runners come from various circles, including sportspersons, officials, students and celebrities.
OCM has been keeping close coordination with the concerned authorities, including the Malaysian police to make the preparations, he said.
He believed that something happened in some western countries would not happen in Malaysia.