Shanghai selects 70,000 volunteers for World Expo 2010

SHANGHAI: Shanghai, the host city of the World Expo 2010, has chosen 70,000 volunteers to work inside the Expo site, organizers told a press briefing Tuesday.

They were chosen from more than 560,000 registered applicants all over the world, said Ma Chunlei, deputy director of the publicity department of the Shanghai Committee of the Communist Party of China. He didn't specify the standards of the selection.

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The on-site volunteers would serve as interpreters, receptionists, guides, and media coordinators during the Expo, which would start on May 1 and last through October 31. Each one was expected to work at least 14 days, Ma said.

The selection of 130,000 more volunteers to work at 1,000 service sites around Shanghai was underway. They would offer services such as information, translation and emergency services outside the Expo site, Ma said.

The volunteer recruitment for the Shanghai World Expo started from May 1 last year. By December 31 last year, more than 560,000 people, including 3,001 foreigners from 110 countries and regions signed up on the Internet to help at the Expo.

The applicants were aged 16 to 99. Most were young people from Shanghai and neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces, Ma said.

The training of the volunteers would start on January 22, and continue until the opening of the Expo.