Nearly one million students from about 100 universities and colleges across the country are to become volunteers to protect the environment, the "China Youth Daily" has reported.

The volunteers are expected to take part in various activities designed to protect the environment and improve environmental protection awareness across the country.

In Beijing, students at the Beijing Forestry University introduced a garbage recycling system to their dormitories, the first of its kind on campus in China.

In Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu province, students have taken sample water from different sections of the polluted Qinhuai River which runs through the city, and have shown them to local residents to promote their environmental protection awareness.

Students in Fudan University in Shanghai, Lanzhou University in northwest China's Gansu Province, and elsewhere helped local people to fill out cards committing them to protect the environment.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2002)