More than 320,000 people have volunteered for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games but only 70,000 volunteers are required for the Olympics and 30,000 more for the Paralympics.
The state-run Xinhua news agency said Monday the number of applicants from Beijing was about 256,000 of which 181,500 were college and university students. The rest were from outside the city.
According to Xinhua about 4,000 employees of foreign-run businesses in Beijing also volunteered and are expected to work in transportation and lodging.
Wang Yi’e, an official of the Beijing Volunteer Association said, “the employees working for foreign enterprises who can speak foreign languages to a high level will be a major source of Olympic volunteers”.
The first batch of volunteers will be picked this summer and are expected to work at this year’s tests events.
