MUSCAT - Chinese Ambassador to Oman Pan Weifang on Saturday highly valued the preparation that Oman has made for the upcoming Beijing Olympic torch relay to be held in Oman's capital Muscat on April 14.
In an interview with Xinhua, Pan said the Oman government has attached high importance to the torch replay and the Oman Olympic Committee, which is in charge of the event, has put everything into details and he is sure that the event will be successfully hosted in Muscat.
The 20-kilometer torch relay will begin at al Bustan Palace roundabout, in the center of which there's a wooden dhow that has visited China in 1981 after a voyage of eight months which finally reached Guangzhou, a harbor city in southeast China.
The dhow, which is called Sohar or Sinbad by the locals, is a must-visit place for locals and tourists to Muscat since it was modeled on the ancient one that Sinbad, a hero sailor in the Arab tales One Thousand and One Nights, steered and visited China about 1,000 years ago.
The ambassador said the dhow of Sohar is a sign of the traditional friendship between Oman and China and a Chinese sailor in the 1400's, Zheng He, also led his convoy to Oman for four times and visited Oman's southern area of Dhofar, which was the center of the country at that time.
The voyage between the two countries, which is called the silk road on the sea, had witnessed large amount of goods exchanges such as China, silk and tea from China to Oman and frankincense, dates and even Arabian horses from Oman to China.
Pan said traditional friendship between the two countries plays an important role for Muscat in achieving the right of hosting the torch relay since Muscat is the only city that the Olympic torch will be relayed in the Arabia world, which harbors more than 20 countries.
Besides, Muscat was keen to host such an event and it was the first city that applied for hosting Beijing Olympic torch relay.
Pan said that there will be about 1,500 people at the al Bustan Palace roundabout to celebrate the opening ceremony of the torch relay. Along the route of the relay, there will be folk dancing and singing. At the end of the torch relay, which is in the Qurum Natural Park, there will be a celebration to mark the successful relay. Altogether about ten thousand people will be involved in the celebration.
He said the Oman people wants to use this opportunity to let more people know Oman and Muscat, a clean, elegant yet vibrant coastal city, and hopes that more and more people will visit Oman.
Oman has become one of the travel destinations for the Chinese since April 2006.
Pan said political relations, trade and economic exchanges and cooperation in other fields between Oman and China have witnessed a steady development in the recent years.
