The 2008 Olympic Games are expected to attract more people in the Chinese capital to participate in volunteer work in the future.

Hundreds of volunteers have been in place since July 1, providing services at different Olympic venues.

Our reporter Dan Dan has the story.

Reporter:

During the Olympic and Paralympic games, 100,000 volunteers will provide direct services in the Olympic venues. At the same time, another 400,000 city volunteers will also offer information consultation, language interpretation and emergency aid services in the city and around the Olympic venues.

Zhang Hong, who heads the Olympic volunteers, says people's passion in participating in the Beijing Games is unprecedented, and the huge number of volunteers accords with the principle of mass participation.

"Our 6+1 pattern allows more volunteers get involved in the Olympics. We hope that with the mass participation, a taste of the Olympics will be felt everywhere across the city."

The 6+1 pattern refers to six programs and one thematic activity. The six programs include the competition volunteer program, city volunteer program and social volunteer program, while the thematic activity is the "Smiling Beijing" activity.

With all of these programs in place, more people, such as 84-year-old Shang Muzhou, will have access to the Olympics.

"I feel that serving the Olympics makes my whole life more meaningful."

Among the volunteers, more than 900 are from foreign countries and regions. Bruce Lerch, a volunteer from Emerson College in the United States, has been in Beijing for over a week.

"Back in America, we took a class to get ready to come here where we studied Chinese culture and some of the language. It's been really nice as an American to come here to see what life is really like in Beijing and in China. I'm just proud to be able to represent my school, my country and be able to help represent Beijing and China as Beijing prepares to show it off to the world."

All of the volunteers have received professional training and have served major sports meets like the Doha Asian Games and the Special Olympics in Shanghai. The volunteers are now fully prepared to serve during the upcoming games.

Meanwhile, Liu Jian, who is leading the Olympic volunteer work, says the games is very likely to encourage more people in the Chinese capital to take part in volunteer work in the future.

"According to the experience of UN Volunteer, it's ideal that the number of volunteers in a region account for 30 percent of the total population there. That means for Beijing, we need to have six million volunteers who can participate in daily volunteer services. We're glad to see that such a tendency is forming."

Dan Dan, CRI News.