But surprising everyone, he suddenly passed up the chance and instead chose to be a volunteer for one year at a small village hospital in North China's Inner Mongolia.

One year has passed, and Doctor Mu has not only completed his voluntary service in Inner Mongolia,but he has applied to stay in the rural hospital for life.

He said he "felt needed" there.

More than 10,000 young people applied to provide one year's service in the country's poorer western region last year, and 6,000 of them finally made their way to become volunteers of a nationwide project sponsored by the All-China Youth Federation.

As another year of service is going to end this summer, 4,030 of them have expressed their desire to stay on for another year, said Zhao Yong, a senior leader with the federation, at a news conference yesterday in Beijing.

And there were another third of the volunteers who said they wanted to settle down in the west for their careers, like Mu.

The project started last year as a move to support the country's western development strategy and promote the "volunteer spirit in China," officials said.

Zhao said the project has done a great deal of good to local economy and education programmes.