Chinese overseas students cheer for the arrival of the Olympic torch in Seoul, South Korea, on April 27, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)
The Beijing Olympic flame arrived Sunday at Incheon international airport, South Korea, for a torch relay later in the day.
The chartered plane, dubbed "Olympic Flame," touched down at 1:05 am local time (1605 GMT). Li Binghua, vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games (BOCOG), stepped out of the plane first with the flame lantern.
The flame delegation was warmly greeted by Kim Sang-Woo, Secretary General of the Korean Olympic Committe and Ning Fukui, Chinese Ambassador to South Korea, and other officials as well as some 160 Chinese students in South Korea.
The torch relay is scheduled to start at 2:00 pm (0500 GMT) in the South Korean capital of Seoul, where the 1988 Olympic Games were held.
The route of the torch relay and the list of torch bears, however, have yet to be officially unveiled.
Chinese overseas students cheer for the arrival of the Olympic torch in Seoul, South Korea, on April 27, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)
Seoul is the 17th leg of the global Olympic torch relay, which is to reach a total of 21 cities on five continents outside the Chinese mainland before arriving in Beijing for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 8.
(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2008)