Livin' In The Chonx

The Olympic torch reaches the Chongqing leg of the relay this Sunday, the 15th.  It will first pass through Wanzhou District (one of the stops along the Three Gorges Cruise) and end in downtown Chongqing on the 16th.

The torch will pass between 416 runners, the oldest 89 years of age and the youngest only 15.   Of the 416, ninety are women.

Wanzhou Segment

The Wanzhou torch relay will begin at 8:00 am and traverse 29.4 km (7.5 km by foot, the rest by car) over the course of two and a half hours.   Here is a breakdown of the stops along the way*:

Wanzhou Secondary School — Bai An Avenue — Bai An Circle –Anshun Road — South Bus Station — Wu Qiao Overpass — Wanchuan Avenue — Wanxian Yangtze Bridge — Promenade — North Shore Road (Beibin Lu) — Peace Plaza (Heping Guangchang) — Wujiawan — Hong Guang Elementary — Wanzhou Bridge — Minghang District — Yubei Anti-Aircraft Regiment — China Industrial and Commercial Bank Street — Tiancheng Avenue — Mintian Exhibition Center — Yangtze River Overpass - Wanzhou Food City — Shibao Bridge — Beishan Avenue — Xinfu Road — #2 Yangtze River Bridge — Jiangnan New District Tunnel — District Government Administration Center

The first person to receive the torch in Wanzhou will be former Olympic ping pong champion Kong Linghui.  The final runner of the Wanzhou leg will be Wang Gang Lin, Wanzhou Public Security Fire Captain, who has just returned from the frontlines of earthquake relief in Sichuan.

Downtown Chongqing Segment

The 17 km downtown segment of the relay will begin at 8:00 am on the 16th at the northern District Council and end around 10:00 at the Great Hall of the People in People’s Square.  Most of the 11 km relay by foot will take place in the new northern district and then tranferred by car to People’s Square.  See enlarged version of map above for the route.

This leg of the relay will be kicked off by Gu Li, of the World Champion Go team and finished with national champion boxer, Li Bin.

To express that the people’s thoughts and support are still with the victims of the Sichuan earthquake, Liu Gang, a survivor who received treatment in Daping Hospital will also be carrying the torch during the downtown leg of the relay.

*Rough translations and pinyin names used here, you can also see original Chinese here