Quake survivors welcome torch

Thousands viewed the Olympic flame in a stadium that provided disaster relief.

MIANYANG, China (AP) — In a fanfare-filled ceremony that included dancers and bursts of confetti, the Olympic torch was paraded Monday around a stadium that only weeks ago was filled with earthquake survivors.

The sweltering afternoon heat did not faze some 3,000 hand-picked spectators whose singing and cheering filled this city’s Jiuzhou Stadium, the third stop for the flame in Sichuan province, where a powerful magnitude-7.9 quake flattened towns in May.

More than 69,000 people were killed and some 5 million were left homeless in the disaster.

Many said they hoped the torch’s journey through the quake zone would give people courage.

“It’s a way to encourage the victims to rebuild. The torch is a symbol of strength and will encourage them to carry on the tenacious struggle,” said Hu Lu, 27, a businesswoman and one of the 88 torchbearers.

Deng Yu, part of a group in the stadium audience from Beichuan Middle School, where hundreds of students were buried when the building crumbled, said the torch “will bring us good luck.”

All around her, her classmates shouted “Go Sichuan! Go China! Go Olympics!”

In the days immediately after the quake, the stadium was packed with tens of thousands of residents who had fled their ravaged towns. They slept on thin mattresses, blankets and flattened cardboard boxes, huddling in the cold and sweating in the heat. Garbage was strewn everywhere and many lived mainly off instant noodles and water.

As weeks passed, makeshift schools and clinics were set up, volunteers doled out hot meals, and the area resembled a miniature town. Eventually, all were moved to temporary settlements built throughout the quake zone.

But Monday, the stadium’s corridors were empty and clean, and tents that had filled grassy areas were gone. Instead, hundreds of red and yellow potted flowers lined the stairs to the main entrance and Olympics-themed flags and banners fluttered high above. Dancers twirled fans and umbrellas in the parking lot to the beat of traditional drums.

Police cordons kept most people about 500 yards from the stadium entrance, and highways to other cities in the quake zone were closed on the days the torch was due to go there.

Security has been extremely tight for the torch’s global tour after protesters critical of China’s human rights record hounded the flame in London, Paris and San Francisco earlier this year.

Sichuan is the last stop for the Olympic flame before it heads to Beijing for Friday’s opening ceremony of the games.