Source: CCTV.com

07-09-2007 17:05

Special Report:   2008 Beijing Olympics

Latest figures show over half a million people have applied to serve as volunteers for the Beijing Olympics. It's expected that over 100,000 of them will be needed for next year's Beijing Olympics and Paralympics. Volunteers most in demand are those with multi-lingual capabilities. In today's feature, we'll take a look at just how they will be helping out at next year's big event.

Beijing's Olympic Organizers launched their Volunteer Program back in August, 2006. Recruitment of volunteers from both China and abroad is now well on track.

People in the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign countries have responded enthusiastically and applied to become one of the eventual 100,000 Olympic volunteers.

Among them, college students with foreign language skills could find themselves in high demand, as Beijing needs to make its Olympics accessible to athletes and spectators from across the globe.

This is a mock press conference held by students from the Beijing Foreign Studies University. One athlete has won a gold medal and journalists from different countries are asking him questions.

It's estimated that officials and athletes from 203 countries and regions will be coming to Beijing for the Olympics. At least 4000 volunteers are needed to provide translation or interpretation services for VIPs and athletes in some 56 foreign languages.

Zhao Huimin, director of BOCOG Int'l Liaison Depart., said, "It might not be easy to provide translators for all the 203 delegations. But we will try our best."