( Reuter )- The Olympic torch touches down in Beijing on Monday amid high security before leaving on a round-the-world relay expected to be a lightning rod for protests against China's policies and human rights practices.
The lighting ceremony a week ago in Greece was marred by protests, and a pro-Tibetan group demonstrated again Sunday when Greek officials handed over the Olympic flame to organizers of the Beijing Games in Athens.
The torch arrives in Beijing aboard an Air China flight, allowing the government a brief respite before the relay sets off on a problematic, monthlong world tour.
The torch relay has been heavily promoted by the Chinese government. The official Xinhua News Agency put out a story Monday saying the plane carrying the torch "entered Chinese airspace at 5:02 a.m. (2102 GMT Sunday)."
Authorities have given few details about a torch welcoming ceremony later Monday in Tiananmen Square, the heart of China's capital.
The flame will then be taken by an unidentified Chinese torchbearer, state media said. The Beijing Youth Daily said it could be famed Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang , an Olympic gold medal winner, although this had not been confirmed.
There has been a noticeable boost in security in downtown Beijing. More police are on patrols and cars are banned from Tiananmen Square.
After a one-day stop in Beijing the flame goes Tuesday to Almaty , Kazakhstan, the start of the 20-country, 137,000-kilometer (85,100-mile) global journey.
The grandiose relay is the longest in Olympic history and has the most torchbearers - a sign of the vast attention lavished on the Games by Beijing, which hopes to use it to showcase China's rising economic and political power.
Instead, however, it has provided a stage for human rights activists who have been criticizing China over a range of issues including its handling of Muslims in the far west of the country, its control over Tibet and its relationship with Sudan.
Tibetan and rights groups have said they will stage protests along the torch route. That includes stops in London, Paris and San Francisco over the next 10 days.
The relay has especially focused attention on recent unrest in Tibet, the worst in the Chinese-controlled region since 1989.
Dozens of Tibetan exiles burned an effigy of China President Hu Jintao as they reached the Indian capital of New Delhi on Sunday, carrying a symbolic flame which they said was running parallel to the official torch for the Beijing Olympic games.
Beijing's relay was tarnished before it even began when a demonstrator protesting Chinese media curbs grabbed headlines last week by disrupting a Chinese official's opening address at the lighting ceremony in Greece.
That was followed across Greece by a smattering of protests by activists protesting a crackdown on dissent in Tibet and members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned in China.