(Tsinghua News Center) Excited crowds of more than 4,000 Tsinghua students, faculty and staff cheered for the Athens Olympic Flame as three runners from the global relay team carried the famous torch through campus Wednesday afternoon.

The Olympic Flame entered Tsinghua from the main gate (the East Gate) at 4 p.m. and continued on to the main building. Many buildings on campus were draped in banners and flags heralding the torch, which will circle the world in the run-up to the 2004 Athens Olympics this summer.

Various sports events, and music and dance performances – including shadow boxing and Mulan Fan Dance – were held at designated sites along the way.

Tsinghua’s Flame-runners included alumnus Deng Yaping, a former Olympic ping pong champion, and Wang Yifu, the famous Olympic player who is currently a student at Tsinghua.

Running alongside the torch holders were Tsinghua students Zhu Hui, a graduate student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Fang Hongrong, a Ph.D candidate from the School of Aeronautics and Aviation.

The 4-kilometer route took torch carriers past the east athletic field, the No. 10 Dining Hall, teaching buildings, several teaching buildings, the auditorium, and the Second Gate before exiting campus through the west gate.

A total of 16 torch carriers, including Yu Quan, the famous Chinese singing duo, Huang Yubin, head coach of the sate gymnastics team, and Wang Wenjing, chairman of the board of Yong You Software Company, participated in the Beijing leg of the torch relay.

The Flame began its journey in the Chinese capitol at the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday morning. It later went to the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. The relay ended at the Summer Palace.

Reported by Liu Aixiang.

Photoed by Guo Haijun