Beijing welcomes the Olympic flame
 |  The Olympic flame arrives in Beijing along the Great Wall of China |
BEIJING, China -- NBA basketball star Yao Ming joined Chinese athletes and celebrities carrying the Olympic torch through Beijing on the latest leg of a journey from Sydney to Athens.
Yao Ming ran the final stretch late Wednesday afternoon, igniting the flame in a cauldron to mark the start of a large-scale ceremony at Beijing's Summer Palace.
A relay of 148 people swept the torch along the 55-kilometer route during an eight-hour event after it had arrived in the city along the Great Wall of China.
Liu Jingmin, vice president of the organizing committee for the 2008 Games in Beijing, hailed the arrival of the Olympic flame as a "great milestone in the city's preparations for the 2008 Olympics".
"The arrival of the flame is symbolic of the mix of two civilizations," Liu told Spiros Lambridis, ambassador for the Athens games, as he accepted a traditional Greek lamp bearing the flame at Beijing's Capital Airport on Tuesday.
Runners carried the Olympic torch along the Great Wall of China near Beijing on Tuesday.
A gala show, including Peking opera and classical music, was held at the ancient Mutianyu section of Great Wall to herald the arrival of the Olympic flame.
The flame is on a whirlwind tour of 27 countries that will take in 34 cities and involve thousands of runners and will eventually signal the opening of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens on August 13.
