China's president greeted the Monday arrival of the Olympic flame in Beijing, at the start of what looks certain to be its most controversial journey ever. The risk of the torch relay being ambushed by demonstrators along its 130-day route through 21 cities on five continents has grown since Beijing's clampdown on violent protests in Tibet.

It wouldn't have been a Chinese state occasion without a secret and a rumor. The secret was why the timing of the welcoming ceremony was changed, and the rumor was that it must be for security reasons. China's Olympic organizers say otherwise. They pointed to the early arrival of the plane carrying the torch from Greece, and Beijing's weather forecast portending fog later in the day. While it's certainly true that the ceremony went off smoothly in brilliant sunshine, and the sky clouded later, the whole episode left me wondering.

The welcome ceremony for the Olympic flame was originally planned to take place on Monday afternoon in Tiananmen Square, and journalists were asked to board a bus at noon. Then on Sunday evening, at 7.30pm, my phone rang. A pleasant but fraught official from Beijing Olympic organizing committee's media center asked me to cross town immediately to collect a further registration paper, and to turn up four hours earlier than scheduled on Monday.

We compromised, and I agreed to be there super-early in the morning. Most news organizations had a similar experience. Two French reporters told me they'd heard of the new timing at 7.30pm on Sunday night, a German reporter was notified at 8pm. Another journalist collecting documents on Sunday was given a piece of paper with the new arrangements printed on it, but was not told about them. Add to this the fact that mid-week, BOCOG's media center had seemed genuinely unsure about any of the arrangements.

As we milled around a cordoned-off space in the vastness of Tiananmen Square, I asked several BOCOG media center officials to explain the hasty time change. One said it was because the specially-chartered Air China plane carrying the flame from Greece came in earlier. "Why?" I asked, thinking about the air traffic control complications. "Ask the pilot", he said. Another pulled out his mobile phone to show me the weather forecast: "I think it's to do with the weather situation in the afternoon. Maybe there'll be fog." Finally, I asked Wang Hui, Director General of BOCOG's Information and Propaganda Department. "I don't know", she said.

Inside the square, about 4,000 performers greeted the Olympic flame with dancing and acrobatics in the presence of top Chinese leaders, foreign diplomats and Hein Verbruggen of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Giant ballons floated above us, anchored by streamers bearing the 2008 Olympic torch relay slogan "Light the Passion, Share the Dream".

The performers were mostly students and retirees from exercise clubs rather than stars. Liu Ming, a 26-year professional Peking opera performer was excited as it was "the first time I've joined this type of global event". The troupe had had a week's notice and half a dozen rehearsals. Balloon-holding students from Beijing Goods and Materials College were a little unsure about their role. "Just hold the balloons", was all the instructions they'd had. Apart from that, "they haven't told us".

Security was tight, with the square barred to pedestrians and blocked to traffic on two sides.

It was a brief ceremony. President Hu was due to arrive at 10.58, reflecting the Chinese belief that eight is lucky number (the Games start on 8/08/2008). At 11.08, a military band played the National and Olympic anthems. The retirees in their pink lycra uniforms stood tall. Brief speeches came from two top Chinese leaders and the IOC's Hein Verbruggen. "From today, the torch will carry the flame across the globe, creating anticipation and excitement for the Beijing Games wherever the relay passes", Verbruggen said. The torch was lit by touching it to the flame (kept inside a sealed lantern for air travel). BOCOG's president passed the torch to China's President Hu, who lit a cauldron and handed the torch to China's top athlete Liu Xiang, the men's 110-meters world record holder. Liu ran towards the national flag. Tinsel burst into the sky, doves and balloons flew upwards. 

From the square, the torch started on the international leg of its 137,000 kilometer journey which will end in the Olympic stadium on 8 Aug. But first it was split in two, with one half of the flame traveling to Everest base camp for the 2008 Torch Relay's most ambitious moment, a televised ascent of the world's highest mountain in May. Two cameramen from China Central Television (CCTV) have been training for two years. Despite the unrest in Tibet, BOCOG insists the Tibetan portion of the torch relay will go ahead. 

If the torch welcoming ceremony was an exam in how Chinese officials will deal with massive PR pressure and public scrutiny, they scored six out of ten. The arrangements seemed messy, the people involved in sorting them out mostly very helpful. Everything went smoothly in the end. To paraphrase another 2008 Olympics slogan, there was peace and friendship, but not as much harmony as there could've been. Above all, the time change remained a mystery. Were the original plans genuine or a security screen? Were journalists misled? Was there a hasty time change? Or were media managers from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) simply left out of the information loop?

By taking on the Olympics, Chinese officials groomed in a secretive political culture have knowingly taken on the huge challenge of dealing with the outside world in a more open way. The next 130 days of the Torch Relay will show how they do.