Olympic flame enhances understanding, friendship

BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Two decades after the 1988 Seoul Games, focus of the whole world has been again on Asia as the Beijing 2008 Olympic torch relay concluded the overseas round of its worldwide tour outside China on Tuesday.

As a prelude to the Olympics due on August 8-24 this summer and one of the most brilliant and exciting parts of the Games, the Beijing Olympic overseas torch relay was a huge promotion campaign.

During the month-long relay starting on April 1 from Kazakhstan's Almaty, the torch crossed five continents and passed through 19 countries.

It passed along the ancient "Silk Road", a bridge between East and West, sharing the Chinese people's joy on its way through Almaty, Istanbul, Islamabad, New Delhi and Bangkok.

It has linked Olympic footprints with relays in Russia, Britain, France and Australia.

It has spread the Olympic spirit to continents which haven't hosted the Olympic Games, passing the flame in Buenos Aires in South America and Dar es Salaam in Africa.

Under the theme of "Journey of Harmony", the torch relay has shown Chinese aspiration for world peace and a better world.

"I feel so honored to welcome the Olympic flame here. It's a great event to mark the close relations between the two countries, it's a good opportunity to bring forth the city to the world, it's a great day for the citizens to cheer up," said Anant Siripasraporn, the Deputy Permanent Secretary of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the first torchbearer at the Bangkok leg of the torch relay.

Discordant notes were heard as repeated assaults to torchbearers by Tibetan separatists and members of other anti-China groups marred the torch's global tour.

The most notorious incident happened on April 7 when the female wheelchair fencer Jin Jing was manhandled in Paris, the fifth stop of the 137,000 kilometers worldwide relay, as several supporters of Tibetan independence rushed to her and tried to snatch the torch from her.

Two days later, the CNN commentator Jack Cafferty made derogatory remarks on China, calling the Chinese "the same goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stood by China.

IOC President Jacques Rogge has told the West to be fair with China and to stop hectoring China over human rights.

"That is the big mistake of people in the West wanting to adding their views," he told Saturday's Financial Times.

Kim Jong Kil, chairman of South Korea's Olympic Committee, expressed his belief that the Beijing Games will be the most successful in history.

"It is not appropriate to disrupt the flame's relay, let alone boycott the Beijing Olympic Games," Kim said.

The sacred Olympic torch will continue its journey in Hong Kong on May 2 and in Macao on May 3. The relay on the Chinese mainland starts on May 4.