The flame gathering and torch relay ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games is held on Wednesday at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Photo: Zhang Hui/GT

The torch relay for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games kicked off on Wednesday at the symbolic Temple of Heaven in Beijing, where the flame of Beijing 2008 Paralympics was lit, and 565 torchbearers, including athletes, coaches and people who contribute to protecting the disabled, are participating in the three-day relay. 

At the flame gathering and torch relay starting ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan lit the torch with the flame collected from nine places in Beijing and co-host city Zhangjiakou as well as Stoke Mandeville, birthplace of the Paralympic Games, and announced the beginning of three-day torch relay.

Sun passed the torch to first torchbearer Chen Jianxin, China's wheelchair curling team member. He completed his section along with cheers from the crowd.

Chen said that he was greatly honored to be the first torchbearer, which provided him the strength for the upcoming competition. 

He told the Global Times that he will try his best. Chen returned to the national team to prepare for Saturday's wheelchair curling. 

The three-day torch relay will see a total of 565 torchbearers, with 21 percent of them being people with disabilities, higher than the International Paralympic Committee (IPC)'s requirement of 15 percent, according to the Beijing 2022 organizing committee.  

On Thursday morning, the torch relay will take place in four places in Zhangjiakou. In the afternoon, the torch relay will be held at two places in Beijing, including the Olympic Forest South Park inside the closed loop, where more than 20 torchbearers from the IPC Family will deliver the torch.

On Friday, the torch relay will continue at three more locations including the Beijing 2022 organizing committee headquarters and Beijing Disabled Persons' Culture and Sports Guidance Center before the torch is used to light the Beijing Paralympic Cauldron at the opening ceremony on Friday.

Before the torch relay started, deaf flame collector Tai Lihua, also head of the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe, collected the flame out of a concave mirror at the Circular Mound Altar in the Temple of Heaven. The flame collection represented the charm of Beijing being the first city to host both the summer and winter Paralympics. 

The torchbearer for the flame collected from Temple of Heaven, Jia Hongguang, who is a Paralympic gold medalist, carried the flame with his mind-controlled and AI-powered prosthetic hand. 

He said China's advanced technology enables him to hold the torch easily with his prosthetic hand. 

He told the Global Times that he was only installed with the hand on Monday afternoon, but he could hold things just after some simple training. 

"That was the first time I had the feeling of holding something since I lost both hands at six, and I shared my excitement immediately with my family," he said. 

He wished after more training, he could control each finger to finish more delicate tasks and make his artificial hand a real hand.

Apart from prosthetic hands, some torchbearers with disabilities will use upper and lower limb assisted exoskeleton robots to help them carry the torch in the torch relay. After adaptive training with assisted exoskeleton devices, they can grasp the torch autonomously and walk upright, according to the Beijing 2022 organizing committee. 

With the slogan "Health, Joy and Energy," the Beijing 2022 Paralympic torch relay aims to encourage people with disabilities across the world to enjoy winter sports and embrace a promising future.