WANGZHOU, Chongqing: Olympic table tennis champion Kong Linghui kicked off the torch relay in Wanzhou district of southwestern Chongqing municipality yesterday amid heavy rain.

Olympic table tennis champion Kong Linghui (R) passes the Olympic flame to second torchbearer Zhong Guoshun during the Beijing Olympic torch relay in Wanzhou district of southwestern Chongqing municipality Sunday amid heavy rain. [Xinhua]

Located within the Three Gorges Reservoir area and about 350 kilometers downstream from downtown Chongqing, Wanzhou is one of the areas to have undergone massive relocation since 1993 to make way for the world's biggest hydropower project.

Around 263,000 local residents have been resettled to other cities and provinces, accounting for about one-fifth of the total displaced when the water level reached 156 meters.

"It's no exaggeration to say that around 99 percent of people in Wanzhou have experienced relocation, either within the city or elsewhere, over the past decade," said torchbearer Li Yong, a Wanzhou native.

"But it doesn't mean that we love our city any less. On the contrary, we have been striving to build a new city and are proud to say that we've made great achievements in that regard. We hope people from across the country can get a glimpse of this through the torch relay."

Despite the rain, tens of thousands of locals turned out to cheer the sacred flame .

Xu Haihua, a farmer in his 60s from Wuxi, a village in Xintian town, was one of them.

Xu said he traveled to Wanzhou early in the morning in order to cheer his village leader Ran Zhen'ai, who was one of yesterday's 208 torchbearers.

Xu moved along with around 300 fellow villagers to new homes on a nearby barren mountain in 1993.

"I have to admit that, at the beginning, the relocation was really hard for us," said Xu.

"But thanks to the support from the government, and the great work of our village head Ran Zhen'ai, we are leading a much more prosperous life than before."

Since the move, Ran has led the whole village in the transformation of the barren mountain into an orchard producing tens of thousands of tons of fruit.

Although he has been busy harvesting in recent weeks, Ran said he always managed to be in front of the TV at 6 pm to watch news related to the torch relay.

He said that he followed the torch relay in order to learn how to run more gracefully, "as I represent not only myself, but thousands of those who have resettled in the city".

Downtown Chongqing will host today's leg of the torch relay.