It took yours truly forever and a day to get to the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall (think of this as a semi-ish day gig), as Chang'an Avenue and Tian'anmen Square got the big bolt added to the whole place. Little surprise: the flame was on its way through to central Beijing. That's precisely what the big pic is about today -- the flame's in Beijing.

Less than 2 days to go -- one you're reading this right now. 31 more till the Paralympics in all...

The big headliner, in the meantime, confirms who'll be doing the singing at the Opening Ceremony: Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman.

Elsewhere...

• Everyone gets a day off on August 8, 2008. (Everyone, that is, except for those doing head-of-state visits, "essential services" (Subways for sure) or if you're a Beijingologist. Heh...)

• Good pics of Xicheng and Chaoyang on pages 8 and 9. The only bad bits: the mass jams just off the bottom center on the page 8 pic at Deshengmen North Bridge and the traffic masse on the 3rd Ring Side Road on page 9. Beijing, you're not the Jing without the jams...

• The whole Subway system is on 24 hours a day from August 8, 2008 through to August 9, 2008. Please get ready for your arrival... (The Airport Express is on until midnight... it needs six hours offline, you know...)

• The Subway system (again) is going to remain unaffected tomorrow as the flame continues its way around the metropolis.

More cloud cover... 24°C - 31°C.