It’s The First‘s turn to carry the torch today. Following the all-torch front pages of yesterday’s Southern Metropolis Daily and The Beijing News commemorating the Olympic torch’s arrival in Hong Kong, Beijng’s sports-related daily features three new photos on its front page.
The main photo was taken at Fire Phoenix Square, on Phoenix Island in Sanya, Hainan Province, where the torch embarked on its mainland journey this morning. The photo at lower right shows yesterday’s celebration in Macau; at lower left is a shot of a snowman at the Everest Base Camp, where snowfall may threaten the run of the torch up the mountain (Nick Mulvenney at Reuters’ Countdown to Beijing blog has an eyewitness account).
The top headline is not torch related: although the May 1 holiday was cut to three days from the Golden Week we’ve enjoyed in years past, consumer spending was up 16.6% over last year’s numbers.