Olympic Torch Relay Protests

Yesterday afternoon, I saw on CNN that the seventh stop for the Olympic torch relay was held in London. As the torch relay progressed, protestors suddenly appeared and tried many times to disrupt the occasion. Protestors were successful in turning the torch fire off by using a fire extinguisher and grabbing the Olympic torch. Torch relay organizers opted to place the Olympic torch in a bus to guard it from protestors. Protestors are by the way from Tibet and were protesting against China’s crackdown against them.

The Olympic torch lighting marks the countdown of the opening of Olympics. According to Wikipedia, “The Olympic Torch is based on traditional scrolls and uses a traditional Chinese design known as "Lucky Cloud". The torch is designed to remain lit in 65 kilometer-an-hour winds, and in rain of up to 50 millimeters-an-hour. It is designed by a team from Lenovo Group. The Torch is designed in reference to the traditional Chinese concept of the 5 elements that make up the entire universe.” The relay will cover 85,000 miles over 23 cities in 34 days until they reach Mainland China. 2008 Summer Olympics will open on August 8, 2008 in Beijing, China.

Here are the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay stops:

March 25, Olympia, Greece
March 30, Athens, Greece
March 31, Beijing, China
April 2, Almaty, Kazakhstan
April 3, Istanbul, Turkey
April 5, St.Petersburg, Russia
April 6, London, United Kingdom
April 7, Paris, France
April 9, San Francisco, United States
April 11, Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 13, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
April 14, Muscat, Oman
April 16, Islamabad, Pakistan
April 17, New Delhi, India
April 19, Bangkok, Thailand
April 21, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
April 22, Jakarta, Indonesia
April 24, Canberra, Australia
April 26, Nagano, Japan
April 27, Seoul, South Korea
April 28, Pyongyang, North Korea
April 29, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
May 2, Hong Kong, China
May 3, Macau, China

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