Hong Kong actress and singer Karen Mok said yesterday that the Olympic torch was the best gift she could hope for her birthday, which falls on today.

Hong Kong entertainer Karen Mok carries the torch in Yichang, central Hubei Province, yesterday. Today the flame goes to Jingzhou City.

Mok ran the day's Olympic torch relay on the Three Gorges Dam in central China's Hubei Province. Mok was the 159th torchbearer in Yichang City. "Tomorrow (Monday) is my birthday. The Olympic torch is the most wonderful gift I've received."

Mok said it was the greatest honor of her life to pass on the Olympic torch. At the top of the gigantic Three Gorges Dam, the largest of its kind in the world, Mok ran and waved to the spectators. "It's more exciting than performing in concerts," she said.

Yichang is the flame's second stop in Hubei where the relay lasted 19 kilometers and featured 208 torchbearers.

Olympic doubles tennis champion Li Ting opened the relay as the first torchbearer. Chinese chess grandmaster Liu Dahua also carried the torch.

Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of the China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Corp, was the last runner in the Yichang relay leg.

At the launch ceremony, all torchbearers and spectators observed a minute of silence for the victims of the May 12 earthquake. The Olympic torch relay will next arrive in Jingzhou City, the last leg of the relay in Hubei.

(Shanghai Daily June 2, 2008)