Flame for Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games lit in Liangzhu culture site

The Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games flame was lit at the Liangzhu ancient city, east China's Zhejiang Province on Thursday, marking the 100-day countdown to the opening of the 19th Asian Games.

The flame is lit during the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games Flame Lighting Ceremony at the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City Park in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, on June 15, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

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. 19 signifies the 19th Asian Games.The outline of the mirror, designed like a Jade Bi, symbolizes the sun's rays.

Liangzhu, meaning beautiful water oasis in Chinese, is located at Yuhang District of Hangzhou. The archaeological ruins of Liangzhu in Hangzhou were inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage list on July 9, 2019, during the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee as it provides profound and compelling evidence that Chinese civilization started 5,000 years ago, which also marks that the five thousand years of Chinese civilization represented by it has been widely recognized in the international community.

Collecting kindling here means that the light of Liangzhu's civilization passes through time and space, igniting the fire of the Asian Games in the new era, symbolizing the spirit of sports inherited and carried forward and continued.

Photo provided to Xinhua shows the ancient city site of Liangzhu

The fire collection device is designed in Jade Bi shape, and the placement table of the fire box is in the shape of Jade Cong, a long, hollow and rectangular jade. Jade Bi and Jade Cong are important representative jade ritual objects of Liangzhu civilization. They are the earliest model of Chinese civilization's cosmology and an important cultural marker of the long history and profundity of Chinese civilization.

It is also worth mentioning that the design idea of the Hangzhou Asian Games Torch also comes from the jade congregation of Liangzhu culture, which implies the beautiful symbolism of connecting the past and the future of the Hangzhou Asian Games.

The Liangzhu civilization, which flourished for a thousand years, has made an outstanding contribution to the formation of Chinese civilization and has provided a richer interpretation of the history of Chinese civilization in its pluralistic and integrated development.