Not all of the capital's residents watched the TV broadcasts of the Olympic flame being lit, but the city has been burning with new passion since it was ignited.

"The Olympic flame! We'll wait for it here right in the Bird's Nest," said engineer Rong Zhihong, who climbs on the National Stadium, nicknamed the Bird's Nest, every day to wash its roof.

"I knew the exact moment the Olympic flame was lit and had longed for that moment very much," she said. "But my job wouldn't let me leave to watch it on TV. Maybe I'll follow it later through the Internet or tomorrow's newspaper reports."

Most of her colleagues weren't able to watch the ceremony's broadcast, as construction of the National Stadium is gearing up for the Olympic test event in April.

"Construction workers here run day and night, and they all give their best wishes for the torch relay and the coming Games," Zhou Jie, a senior official of the Bird Nest's construction company, said.

Organizers of the Games, which will open on August 8, had special feelings toward the flame's lighting.

"The lighting of the Olympic flame launched the torch relay; the Beijing Games is coming closer, and our job enters the next phrase," vice photo manager of the Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games media service team Dong Su said.

Zhao Dongcai, one of the Beijing Olympic torch designers, also said she and her fellow volunteers have been ready to serve the Games.

"I could not be more excited and honored to see the torch designed by our team lit up in Ancient Olympia," she said.

"I hope to give the best service to athletes and officials from all over the world and show them how warm-hearted Beijingers are," she said.

The Olympic flame-lighting ceremony also fired up ordinary people in the capital.

"It will arrive in Beijing in more than 100 days to open the Games, and I hope friends from foreign countries and regions could stay in my house," Wang Qi, whose family lives in the Asian Games Village, said.

Applause and cheers could be heard anywhere as TV was on during the ceremony, and people in shopping malls crowded in front of the counters selling TV sets to watch it.

"It reminded me of the moment Beijing first won the bid to host the Games," Internet technology worker Yang Yu said. "We've looked forward to the Olympics for seven years, and they are finally coming."

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2008)