Jackie Chan carries Olympic torch atop Great Wall
Actor Jackie Chan answers questions from journalists from the Badaling Great Wall on the second day of the torch relay in Beijing on February 3, a day before the start of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
The Olympic torch relay began its second day on Thursday atop the Great Wall, with Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan and Chinese Olympic medalists among those taking turns carrying the flame along a route shortened to three days because of COVID-19.
Table tennis Olympic gold medalist Ma Long and Wu Jingyu, a
two-time gold medalist in taekwondo, were among those carrying
the red-and-silver spiral torch along the Badaling section of
the Great Wall, where the Thursday morning temperature was a
bracing -11 degrees Celsius.
Chan, 67, a Hong Kong film star, was identified in the official press release by his Chinese name Chen Gangsheng.
"I woke up at 4am. This is my fourth Olympics. I'm very happy. I'm also cold!" Chan told reporters after his run along the wall.
Badaling, the section of the wall most often visited by tourists, is 70km northwest of central Beijing in the Yanqing District, near the Olympics sliding and Alpine skiing venues.
It was built around 1500 during the Ming Dynasty.
Table tennis Olympic gold medalist Ma Long poses with the torch during the relay along the Badaling section of the Great Wall in Beijing today.
Later on Thursday, the torch will be taken to Zhangjiakou in neighboring Hebei Province, where most of Olympic snow events will take place. The relay will end with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at Friday's opening ceremony.
Because of COVID-19, the Games are taking place inside a "closed loop" keeping competitors and other Olympics personnel away from the public, and will be attended only by small, selected audiences.
