China's Premier Wen Jiabao lights the torch with the Paralympic flame during the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games flame lighting and torch relay launching ceremony at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing August 28, 2008.[Agencies]

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao lit the Beijing Paralympic flame at the ancient Temple of Heaven in Beijing on Thursday, kicking off the torch relay across China before the 13th Paralympics opens on September 6.

In front of the symbolic Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, deaf-mute flame collector Jiang Xintian lit the flame out of a concave, burnished mirror.

The flame was then handed to a girl in wheelchair, before it lit a torch held by Liu Qi, president of the organizing committee of the just concluded Beijing Olympic Games.

Liu passed the torch to Wen Jiabao, who lit a cauldron and announced the beginning of the 9-day torch relay.

The sacred flame will be sent to Xi'an in Northwest China and Shenzhen in the south, where the relay will be launched on Friday and Saturday respectively.

"The flame will symbolize over the next ten days the unique sporting spirit displayed by Paralympic athletes," said Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee, at the flame lighting ceremony. "This spirit overcomes many obstacles in the search of sporting excellence."

The Temple of Heaven, a gateway between the earth and the sky in Chinese traditional concept, was the perfect location to light the flame for the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, he said.