Beijing's volunteer overload
02/02/2007 11:02  - (SA)  

Olympic costs are 'overblown' Olympic costs are 'overblown' London's 2012 costs spiralling London's 2012 costs spiralling Cheap tickets for Beijing Games Cheap tickets for Beijing Games

Beijing - More than 320 000 people have applied to be volunteers for next year's Beijing Olympics, triple the number needed, state media said on Friday.

About half the applicants are students and teachers from Beijing-based universities while the rest are people who live in Beijing and other parts of the country, the First newspaper reported, citing the Games' organisers.

The Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Games only wanted 70 000 volunteers to serve at the Olympics and another 30 000 for the Paralympics.

The organisers started accepting applications for volunteers from Beijing residents in August last year, then opened the process up nationally on January 19.

Even though supply has already far exceeded demand, Olympic organisers intend to allow people from overseas to apply to be volunteers from March, according to the paper.

What is this?    Yahoo    Digg  Del.icio.us  Facebook Brought to you by OUTsurance Car Insurance News24 on mobile News24 on facebook profile