PINGYAO, Shanxi - Jeff Morgan, an urban planner from the United States, climbed down from the 600-year-old city walls of Pingyao to roaring cheers and to the beat of drums, holding aloft the Olympic torch on Wednesday.
As executive director of the California-based Global Heritage Fund, he has been keenly involved in the conservation of Pingyao - a World Cultural Heritage - since 2006.
Before Pingyao, his organization was involved in the conservation of Lijiang, Yunnan province, for four years.
Jeff Morgan carries the torch in Pingyao on June 25. [Xinhua]
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"I am thrilled that mayor Wang of Pingyao invited me to be an Olympic torchbearer. It was perfect timing that we came here two years ago. Tourism is still light and there is much that we can do here," he said.
Currently, Morgan's fund is involved in 12 projects in 10 countries, the one in Pingyao is the biggest.
The focus of its work is to restore 20 ancient buildings, to train local conservationists and tour guides, and to develop a "cultural heritage route" along which visitors can view the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) courtyards.
Morgan was one of the 208 Olympic torchbearers who took part in the relays in Yuncheng and Pingyao. And like him, many had contributed to the preservation of the cities.
Yuncheng and Pingyao are well known as film locations.
Yuncheng was where independent director Jia Zhangke set most of his movies in the 1990s and early 2000s, such as Xiao Wu, Platform and Unknown Pleasures.
Jia won the Golden Lion award at the Venice International Film Festival in 2006 for his portrayal of an alienated youth in an inland city. It was set in Yuncheng.
Pingyao was where Zhang Yimou, who will direct the opening ceremony of the Olympics, shot his first Oscar-nominated film Raise the Red Lantern in 1992.
