After the completion of the lighting ceremony in Athens Greece and the handover ceremony in Beijing at the end of March this year, the 2008 global torch relay has already begun its four-month long journey through 134 cities around the world to fulfill its mission of delivering messages of friendship and peace across the globe. For this purpose, Google has collaborated with CCTV.com, the official internet broadcaster of this year's games, to launch a simplified Chinese version of the "2008 Global Torch Relay Route Map" (test version). Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, as well as English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch versions will also be launched globally in the near future, to allow people from all over the world to track the torch relay route via Google Maps products and technology platforms, tour all the cities along the relay route, and watch videos of the relay from each location streamed online by CCTV.com.
Chinese users can access this route map at http://ditu.google.cn/torchrelay/. They can also download a complete set of landmarks for all 134 relay cities on this page, and experience the amazing sensation of viewing the relay route and cities from an altitude of 6000 kilometers in space using Google Earth software.
Highlights of this route map:
1. Full route tracking: You will be able to clearly see the entire relay route and arrival dates as you follow it. The red route represents the part of the relay that has already been completed.
2. City details: Click on each city point on the map or the city list on the right side, and a small window will open where you can learn about the basic situation of this city along the relay route, browse scenic pictures of the city, and zoom in to see detailed maps of the city. By clicking the relevant link such as "more city pictures," you can also directly view the results of a Google image search for this city.
3. Local relay videos: Especially exciting is that by clicking on the video tab in the small window, you can watch online videos of the relay coverage for this city streamed by CCTV.com. Note that the video will only be updated after the relay takes place; before that, you will see related promotional videos or historical footage of the city.
4. Embeddable route map: You can also copy and paste a piece of code to embed this constantly updating interactive route map into your own website or blog and share it with more people.
5. Saveable route map to Google "My Maps" collection: The same map can also be viewed directly in Google Maps, divided into the relay route within mainland China and the global route segment. After opening the previous link, click on the "Save to My Maps" link on the page. The next time you visit the Google Maps website, you will still be able to see this saved collection.