In 53 days, the rays of the sun will be used to kindle the Olympic flame for the Beijing Games, to begin a 19-country, international torch run.
But Beijing's Olympic fire won't be illuminating Canada.
"It's not touching down in any Canadian city," said Jackie DeSouza, director of communications for the Canadian Olympic Committee.
"They've decided to touch down in every continent, and the flame will be in San Francisco in the United States, but not here."
Vancouver will, however, get a visit from the Paralympic flame, after the Olympic Games close, Aug. 24, according to the Beijing 2008 official website.
The Olympic torch will be passed from hand to hand by nearly 22,000 bearers, the Chinese news agency Xinhua says, covering a record distance of 137,000 km. International ports of call on its journey include Istanbul; St.Petersburg; London; Paris; San Francisco; Buenos Aires; Dar Es Salaam; Islamabad; Mumbai; Bangkok; Kuala Lumpur; Jakarta; Canberra; Nagano; Seoul; Pyongyang; Ho Chi Minh City; Hong Kong and Macao. Australian swim icon Ian Thorpe has asked to carry the flame on the Australian leg.
But Olympic stalwart Canada didn't make the guest list, even though Vancouver's Winter Games in 2010 will mark the country's third go-round as host.The Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee (BOCOG) has about 200 torchbearer spots open for the Olympic Family, meaning representatives of the International Olympic Committee, national committees like the COC and international sport federations, but the COC is not aware of any invitations to a Canadian to run a step.
"It's not a snub," said DeSouza. "The route was determined by BOCOC in consultation with the IOC and the sponsors and this is the route that worked for them."
Canadians will have their chance to see and even to carry an Olympic flame on its 35,000-km meander across Canada to Vancouver in 2010 for the Olympics and Paralympics.
That journey probably won't be as politically charged as the run of the Beijing flame, which likely will encounter protests over surrounding China's human rights record.
On the symbolic side, the fire, lit in a ceremony at ancient Olympia where the Temple of Hera stood, on March 24, represents the fire stolen from the gods by Prometheus in ancient Greek times. It also represents purity.
Olympic officials said Thursday that the first seven days of the Beijing Olympic torch relay will take place in Greece. The Hellenic Olympic Committee said the Olympic Flame will cover more than 1,500 kilometers in the Olympic s birthplace, before being handed off for a representative of the Beijing Games at the Panathenian Stadium on March 30 to begin the world tour.
The flame will be run through 113 cities and regions within China, including the highest point on earth, the summit of Mount Everest (known by the Chinese as Qomolangma) in the Himalayas on the border between Nepal and Tibet.
World-record hurdler Liu Xiang and National Basketball Association star centre Yao Ming have applied to be torchbearers in their homeland.
A lantern resembling the kind used in ancient Chinese palaces, will be used to house an emergency back-up flame , also lit from the original in Olympia , in case the torch goes out in situations such as the ascent of Everest.The torch is designed to burn for 15 minutes and can withstand winds of 65kph and downpours.
The torch, designed by the Games technology sponsor Lenovo, resembles a Chinese paper scroll, embossed with red-colored clouds on an aluminum base. Paper-making ranks as one of China's four great inventions along with gunpowder, the compass and printing techniques.
The cauldron that will be set alight in the 95,000-seat national stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, visually represents the Chinese concept of a round heaven and square earth, Xinhua explained.