The flame lighting ceremony for Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games Photo: VCG

The flame for the Asian Games was ignited at the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province on Thursday, which marks the beginning of the 100-day countdown to the intracontinental multi-sport event that is scheduled to be held in the city from September 23 to October 8.

Nineteen flame collectors, dressed in white, strolled up the steps before one of them lit a torch from the rays of the sun using a concave mirror. The outline of the mirror, designed after a round circular jade known as a bi, symbolizes the sun's rays.

The flame collector presented the torch to Yi Lianhong, secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, who ignited the cauldron. Its design was inspired by a long tubular square jade known as a cong, which is the earliest known cosmological model in Chinese civilization together with the bi.

"Both the jade bi and cong are important representative jade ritual objects of the Liangzhu civilization spanning 5,000 years," Fang Xiangming, vice chief of the Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said in the interview. 

"The jade bi symbolizes the rays of the sun and has a history of nearly 9,000 years. The jade cong symbolizes divine authority and reflects the ideas and beliefs of the Liangzhu civilization." 

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2019, the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu is a sacred place that has born to witness over 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.

"The Liangzhu site is a sacred place that substantiates China's 5,000 years of civilization, serving as a unique historical and cultural window to showcase ancient and modern China to the world," said Fang.

The flame collection ceremony was held at Damojiao Mountain, the core area of the Liangzhu site, which Fang says symbolizes the light of Liangzhu's civilization crossing through time and space to ignite the Asian Games flame. 

"It represents the inheritance and promotion of the spirit of sports and the unceasing vitality of the times," he noted.

The name for torch of the Asian Games is Eternal Flame. The torch, which is 73 centimeters tall, features the eight rivers that run through Zhejiang. The torch's Chinese name Xinhuo is derived from Chinese idiom xinhuo xiangchuan, which means to "pass down from generation to generation," or "pass the torch." 

The torch relay will start at the West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the city, in mid-September. It will be relayed across 11 cities in East China's Zhejiang Province. 

Meanwhile, a "digital torchbearer" campaign will be held online for fans who are unable to attend the torch relay events. Over 21 million people have participated in a virtual torch relay as digital torchbearers through online platforms, organizers said. 

Brand new medals 

The medal design for the Asian Games was also unveiled on Thursday evening.

The medals are named Shan Shui, as the surface of the medal portrays a typical Hangzhou landscape: Mountains and lakes cut in curves, indicating the city's unwavering determination to promote ecological civilization.

Like the cauldron for the flame, the medals were also inspired by jade cong. 

The medal ribbons were made using a brocade jacquard technique, and its environmentally friendly design also caters to the ecological concept of the Asian Games.

"The image of the medal design brings together the three major world cultural heritages in Hangzhou: the West Lake, the Grand Canal, and the Liangzhu site," Zhang Junjie, director of the Industrial Design Department of the China Academy of Art (CAA), noted at this evening's activity.

Zhang and the CAA team finished the design after nearly two years of effort.

Notable sites

The two aforementioned UNESCO World Heritage sites and the Grand Canal, which runs from Beijing to Hangzhou, make the latter a popular tourist destination. The Grand Canal, the longest man-made canal in the world, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014. 

The three UNESCO World Heritage Sites are also the inspiration for the Asian Games' mascots Congcong, Lianlian and Chenchen. 

Congcong, colored a vivid yellow to indicate a bumper harvest, represent the Archaeology Ruins of Liangzhu. Lianlian, whose name signifies the lotus, is colored green to represent the West Lake.

Chenchen, blue in color, takes its name from the Gongchen Bridge - a landmark structure on the Hangzhou section of the Grand Canal.

The organizers have prepared 56 competition venues and 31 training facilities for the Games, among which 12 venues are newly built. 

E-sports will make its debut in a multi-sport event at the Asian Games. It is expected to drive millions of fans to watch the brand-new competition.

According to  Zhou Jinqiang, deputy head of the General Administration of Sport of China, around 900 Chinese athletes are expected to participate in the Asian Games, which were postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All 45 Olympic committees in Asia have registered to participate in the regional games, the organizers said. 

China has hosted the Asian Games twice before, heralded by Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010. Team China, a powerhouse in sports, remains the team to beat at the summer Asian Games, as it has bagged 1,473 gold medals, ranking first in Asia at the intracontinental event.