Olympic flame arrives in Istanbul

The Olympic flame, carried in a specially-designed lantern, was flown into Istanbul on Thursday onboard a chartered plane from Kazakhstan's Almaty, on the first leg of its global tour.

The Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games (BOCOG) executive vice president, Jiang Xiaoyu, alighted from the plane carrying the torch, where he joined a celebratory ceremony at Turkey's main Ataturk International airport.

Upon arrival, the Olympic flame and the Olympic delegation were welcomed by a cheering crowd, among the welcoming committee, deputy governor of Istanbul Ergun Gungor, senior official of the Turkish Olympic Committee, Yalcin Aksoy, and Chinese ambassador to Turkey, Sun Guoxiang.Â

Earlier Tuesday, Aksoy announced that the 17.8-km torch relay will begin on Thursday afternoon in Istanbul, the only city in the world located on two continents, Asia and Europe.

The starting point of the relay in Istanbul is the city's symbolic St. Sophia Square, where 23-year-old figure skater, Tugba Karademir,  will carry the flame at the start of its 2-km-long journey, which will take it through the city and across the Bosporus Bridge, a famous suspension bridge spanning Asia and Europe.

After returning to the European side of Istanbul, the torch will head to Taksim Square, for the lighting of a ceremonial cauldron, which will be followed by a celebratory concert. The next state of  tour will take the Olympic flame to Russia's St Petersburg.

The 2008 Olympic flame was ignited on March 24 at the Ancient Olympia of Greece and was handed over to Beijing on March 31 after a six-day tour in Greece.

The 130-day torch relay will cover 137,000 kilometers before the flame returns to Beijing and enters the National Stadium on Aug. 8 for the Olympics' opening ceremony.  A total of 21,880 torch bearers will participate in the unprecedented relay, which is held under the theme of "Journey of Harmony."

A group of 200 Uighur Muslims, distanced by local police, held a peaceful demonstration against China at the Olympic flame ceremony marking the start of its tour through the city.