Torch in mainland China gets thunderous welcome

By Ben Blanchard

SANYA, China (Reuters) - Thunderous applause and cheers greeted the Olympic torch on Sunday on the first leg of its marathon relay through mainland China after a protest-harried overseas journey.

"Go China," people lining the streets chanted, waving Chinese flags as the flame made its way from a man-made island just off the tropical resort city of Sanya, on the southern tip of the island province of Hainan.

Some of the thousands who turned out climbed up trees to get a better view of the torch, which has already been paraded through the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau to an overwhelmingly enthusiastic welcome.

"As the first stop for the torch relay in mainland China, we are very honoured and proud," Sanya's Communist Party boss, Jiang Zelin, told a carefully selected audience of dignitaries, celebrities and ordinary people, before the relay set off.

The torch ended its Sanya leg of its tour with Hong Kong-born action star Jackie Chan, running with a local resident, carrying the flame to a closing ceremony on a beachfront park.

A bold plan to take a special flame to the top of Mount Everest faced a possible setback at the weekend as snow fell on the world's highest mountain.

The climbing team has been at 6,500 metres in advanced base camp or higher for at least three days, waiting for better weather to take the flame to the 8,848-metre peak and claim the crowning moment of a relay that was marred by anti-China protests on its round-the-world journey.

The demonstrations that dogged the main torch, which were mostly over China's crackdown against protests in Tibet, deeply embarrassed Beijing and provoked retaliatory rallies at home and abroad by patriotic Chinese.