Beijing recruits 74,000 volunteers for Olympics

BEIJING -- Beijing has recruited 74,615 volunteers to provide services at venues, the Olympic Village and media centers of the Olympic Games, with the oldest aged 87, according to an organizer on Wednesday.

Among the volunteers who come from 98 countries and regions, 73,195 were from the Chinese mainland, 299 from Hong Kong, 95 from Macao, 91 from Taiwan and 935 from other countries and regions, said Zhang Juming, deputy director of the Volunteers' Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
The oldest is 87-year-old Sun Fangchui, chief engineer of the Beijing Jianxue Architecture and Engineering Design Institute Co. Ltd., who will work at the National Stadium.

Meanwhile, 7,600 venue volunteers were recruited at six Olympic co-host cities, including Qingdao, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang, Qinhuangdao and Hong Kong, he said.

The number of volunteers recruited for the Paralympics stood at about 30,000. All volunteers had received training.

More than 1.1 million people submitted application to volunteer for Olympics during the recruitment period between August 28, 2006, to March 31 this year. Of them, more than 900,000 also applied to work for the Paralympics.

"The number of applicants is the biggest in Olympic history," Zhang said.

BOCOG had also recruited 400,000 "city volunteers" to offer such services as information inquiry, translation and first-aid assistance at 550 temporary volunteer stations around the capital, he said.

In addition to the Olympic volunteers directly serving the Games and the "city volunteers," BOCOG organized 1 million "social volunteers" to offer various service, such as maintaining traffic order and public order at communities and townships, he said.

"We are confident the volunteers, through their professional service and sincere smiles, will leave a most beautiful memory to the international athletes and guests," he added.