350,000 apply to be Beijing Games volunteers

More than 350,000 Chinese have applied to be volunteers at next year's Beijing Olympics and Paralympics in the first six months of the recruitment campaign, organisers said on Thursday.

Volunteers are vital to the successful running of the Games, performing functions from helping athletes and the media to directing crowds at the venues.

Beijing plans to have 70,000 volunteers for the Olympics, which open on August 8 2008, and 30,000 more for the Paralympics in September the same year.

"The applicants include 180,000 students and teachers of Beijing Universities, 80,000 Beijingers from other sectors and close to 100,000 from other provinces and municipalities," said a report on the Web site of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG).

Beijing also hopes to have 400,000

The next step of the recruitment campaign is to solicit volunteers from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as well as the rest of the world.