Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the XXIX Olympic Games waves at the Beijing Capital International Airport after the chartered Olympic torch plane arrived in Beijing on March 31, 2008. [Xinhua]

Zhou Yongkang ( L), member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee, holds the Olympic flame for the 2008 Beijing Games with Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee at Beijing Capital International Airport, March 31, 2008. [Xinhua]

BEIJING, March 31  -- A chartered Air China plane carrying the Beijing Olympic flame touched down at the Beijing Airport Monday morning.

Beijing Olympics' top organizer Liu Qi walked off the plane, carrying a lantern which holds the sacred flame.

A welcome ceremony for the Olympic flame will be held late this morning at Tian'anmen Square.

The torch relay officially starts on Tuesday in Beijing when the flame is scheduled to depart for Almaty, capital of Kazakhstan on Tuesday.

Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the XXIX Olympic Games waves at the Beijing Capital International Airport, March 31, 2008. [Xinhua]