The Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (GAGOC) yesterday launched its pre-Games Volunteer recruitment campaign for the 16th Asian Games. Guangdong natives who served the Beijing Olympics as volunteers will automatically be accredited as Asian Games volunteers, according to the GAGOC.

The organizing committee also welcomes applications from residents of Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, from Taiwan Province, from overseas Chinese, and from foreign students. Their applications will be handled through designated recruitment institutions.

Chen Xiexia, who lifted China's first gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has been accredited as the first volunteer for the Asian Games. Other volunteers include He Jingtang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Zhong Weihe, Vice-President of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and Yin Jie, a well-known local TV hostess. The GAGOC hopes the celebrity effect will attract more citizens to apply to serve the Games.

An internal recruitment drive will be launched among nine local institutions and universities, including Guangdong Urban and Rural Planning and Design Institute, the Architecture School of South China University of Technology, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, the Law School of Sun Yat-sen University and Guangzhou Service Center for Scholarly Exchange. People can also submit applications online at the GAGOC official website (http://www.gz2010.cn/).

According to the GAGOC, the recruitment of pre-Games and Games-time Volunteers will start in September and November respectively, and City Volunteer recruitment in January 2009. The recruitment campaigns will last until March, June and November of 2010 respectively. Anyone who observes Chinese law and possesses the required sports knowledge and foreign language skills is qualified to apply.

Games Volunteers will work for eight hours a day and their positions will be guaranteed during their volunteer service.

More than 1,500 people thronged to the application site yesterday. A total of 1,200 application guides were handed out within the first hour. According to the Organizing Committee, most of the applicants are university students who have taken part in various voluntary services before.

Xu Ruisheng, Vice-Mayor of Guangzhou and Vice-Executive Secretary General of GAGOC hopes the Asian Games will leave the city with the legacy of a perfect voluntary service system.

The 16th Asian Games will run from November 12 to 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, the capital city of south China's Guangdong Province.

(China.org.cn by Huang Shan September 22, 2008)