NINGBO, China -- Victims of China's devastating earthquake were remembered with a moment of silence Thursday as the Olympic torch's march to Beijing restarted its journey.

Participants at the torch lighting ceremony in the eastern seaport city of Ningo stood and bowed their heads in silence as flags, which flew at half-staff during a three-day earthquake mourning period, fluttered in the wind.

"Your love is our hope," said Zhu Shijie, a crane operator and the first torchbearer of the day. "We all must fight the earthquake together."

The crew of the MSC Rita watched from their ship, which blew its horn to signal the end of the ceremony and the start of the relay.

The relay started on the dock of a container terminal at the port and traveled though the city amid huge but orderly crowds of people. Many waved the crimson national flag and were decked out in Olympics T-shirts, hats and headbands.

"What's not to be proud of? This is the pride of our country," said Zha Xiuxie, a 43-year-old factory worker, speaking about the relay. "It was the longest mourning period ever for our country. Now we can move forward."

So far, the torch has had a smooth relay in mainland China, uninterrupted by the protests over Tibet and human rights that dogged parts of its international tour.

But organizers scaled down the celebratory, triumphant tone of the run after the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that struck central China on May 12, flattening entire communities.

Olympics organizers said Thursday that the Sichuan province leg of the relay had been shifted from mid-June to early August because of the quake.

"This has been done to support the disaster relief efforts in Sichuan," the organizers said in a statement.

China's leadership has sought to use the Olympics, which begin Aug. 8 in Beijing, to showcase the country's achievements and rally national unity. The torch relay, which has traveled to all corners of the globe and to the top of Mount Everest, has played a crucial role in the buildup to the Games.

Organizers initially resisted changes in the relay, which corporate sponsors have paid millions of dollars to fund.

Some legs of the run were shortened and donations for victims have been collected.

The torch was to be moved later Thursday by vehicle to the country's commercial center of Shanghai. It is to remain in Shanghai today and Saturday and then travel on to neighboring Jiangsu province.