The Olympic flame took relay on Wednesday in one of China's revolution base Yan'an, a city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi Province.

Liu Tianyou, a 92-year-old Chinese Red Army soldier, ran in the first place from the starting point in Zaoyuan Garden at 8:10 a.m. local time.

 

Torchbearer Liu Tianyou (R), a 93-year-old Red Army veteran, runs with the torch during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay in Yan'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, July 2, 2008.(Xinhua/Jiao Weiping)

Liu took part in China's red revolution at the age of 17 and started the Long March in 1935. She arrived at Yan'an with the No.4 contingent of Red Army and retired from the army one year later for the sake of illness.

Zaoyuan revolution site is located in the northwest of Yan'an. It's the locus of Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from October 1943 to March 1947.

Wang Xiangrong, 56, ran in the 195th place and song a folk song through his relay. Wang is nicknamed "king of songs in Northwest China" relayed on the top of Yan'an Pagoda Hill, which is the symbol of Yan'an and huge platform for sightseeing.

The 197th torch carrier was Niu Yuqin, a model in a forestation. Niu, 59, planted trees in 40,000-mu desolate sand (2,660 hectares) in contract. The forestation coverage in Niu's contracted sands has reached 60 percent.

The closing ceremony was put on in Huangdi Mausoleum, 90 minutes' drive from Yan'an, at 11:05 a.m. local time with Wang Ximin, 51, a local entrepreneur, lit the cauldron.

Torchbearer Wu Wenqing (C) cheers as he passes the torch to Xu Changqing during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay in Yan'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, July 2, 2008.(Xinhua/Liu Lihang)

The hand to hand relay lasted 6.31km with 208 torchbearers holding the torch.

Yan'an was the endpoint of the Long March, and the center of the Chinese communist revolution from 1935 to 1948. Chinese communists celebrate Yan'an as the birthplace of the revolution.

Yan'an is currently a Prefecture-level city administering several counties, including Zhidan, formerly Bao'an, which served as the Chinese communist capital before the city of Yan'an proper took that role.

The flame moved on at the afternoon to Yangling, a county-level city, poised for Thursday's relay in Yangling and Xianyang.

Editor: Yan