The Beijing Winter Olympics torch relay kicked off with a low-profile ceremony Wednesday morning, two days before the start of the Winter Games.
A few hundred selected people were at the ceremony in Olympic Forest Park in northern Beijing, with the general public urged not to watch it in person as part of the strict pandemic measures.
Vice Premier Han Zheng ignited the torch with the Olympic flame, beginning a three-day journey during which around 1,200 torch-bearers will pass the flame in the three competition zones. Chinese basketball great and Olympian Yao Ming was the first athlete to carry the flame on the journey.