Hundreds of thousands of people gathered at Nanhu Lake?yesterday in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, their voices echoing high above the water. Almost all of them waved flags, either the red of China or white of the Olympics.

A torchbearer relays the Olympic torch on a boat during the Torch Relay in Jiaxing of Zhejiang Province, on May 22, 2008.

Some spectators even had telescopes so they could watch the unique element of the leg - people passing the torch to each other from the comfort of boats bobbing on the water.

"Gear up China! Gear up Wenchuan!" the crowds roared. Their banners carried slogans such as "Dream for the Olympics, Love for Sichuan" to show their support for the Games and sympathy for the victims of the earthquake.

The Olympic flame was greeted with great passion yesterday, the first day of the resumed relay following three days of mourning.

People filled the streets of Ningbo and Jiaxing to watch the event.

Zhao Yunya, an office worker from Jiaxing who had a spot beside the 96-acre lake, said: "The torch relay is a message of love, and my friends and I want to use the opportunity of it passing through our city to show our support for the victims of the earthquake in Sichuan."

The relay started yesterday morning in Ningbo and moved to Jiaxing in the afternoon.

The Ningbo leg began at Beilun Harbor, one of China's largest ocean harbors, and ended at the 36-km Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the longest cross-sea bridge in the world, which opened on May 1 this year.

Fifty-six torchbearers ran a distance of 5.6 km along the bridge.

Engineer Yan Hongjun, who worked on the Bay Bridge for five years, was the last of the 118 torchbearers to run in Ningbo.

"It is my greatest honor to run with the Olympic torch in my hand on a bridge I was involved in building," he said.

Of the 90 torchbearers in Jiaxing, nine were considered the luckiest, as they got to pass the flame to each other as they stood in boats on Nanhu Lake.

In July 1921, the Communist Party of China held its first national congress on a boat on Nanhu Lake.

At the end of the Jiaxing leg, the torch was packed up and sent off to Shanghai, where a two-day relay will be staged today and tomorrow.

(China Daily May 23, 2008)