The Olympic flame that will burn at Athens, Greece this summer has arrived in Seoul as part of a global journey before the opening of the Olympics.

The torch left the Olympic Park in eastern Seoul on a 48-kilometer route, winding its way to City Hall, where a welcoming ceremony was held in the evening. The torch will depart for Beijing early Tuesday morning.

The Olympic torch arrived in South Korea from Japan Monday morning after it departed from Australia, its first international stop, last Friday.

Seoul, host of the 1988 Olympics, is the torch's fourth stop on a 75,400-kilometer journey across six continents, 27 countries and 33 cities with the participation of about 11,000 runners.

The Olympic torch was first lit on March 25th in Olympia, Greece, the ancient birthplace of the world's biggest sports event, and subsequently taken to the Panathinaic Stadium, the venue of the first modern Olympic Games.