LIJIANG, Southwest China -- The Beijing Olympic torch relay in World Heritage City Lijiang started at 8:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday at the People's Square in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, with the first leg run together by a local boy and a girl from quake-hit Sichuan Province.

He Zhensheng(L), a Naxi ethnic boy who survived the Lijiang earthquake in 1996, holds the Beijing Olympic torch jointly with Zhang Zilan, who lost her parents during the Sichuan quake last month, in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, June 10, 2008. [Xinhua]

He Zhensheng, with the name literally meaning born in earthquake, who was a 12-year-old Naxi ethnic boy born on February 3rd, 1996 when a magnitude-7.0 earthquake hit Lijiang City, was handed the torch first with a 13-year-old girl, Zhang Zilan, who was an orphan losing her parents in the deadly May 12 quake in Sichuan Province.

"It is a torch to pass love and warm, witness and reflect the unity and power of all Chinese people. These two young torchbearers both suffered great disaster. The boy and Lijiang City have recovered well with help from all over the country. We hope the torch relay represents our wish that the girl together with Sichuan Province will recover as soon as possible and develop well," Mayor of Lijiang City Wang Junzheng told Xinhua.

At main streets of Lijiang, banners and posters reading "Welcome Olympic Torch and Support Sichuan People", "Hearts of Beijing, Lijiang and Sichuan Ties Together" or "Improve Reconstruction work as to Spread Olympic Spirit" can be seen everywhere.

For decades, Lijiang has experienced from the spirit of constantly striving for improvement in the ruins of the earthquake on February 3, 1996, and becomes a new world-known Lijiang.

"The Olympic flame is now endowed with more glaring color and light as the strong and united Chinese people are all standing together with people in quake-hit zone," Wang said.