In the wake of the announcement that Beijing has started recruiting volunteers for urban services, the city organized a campaign to promote the recruitment on Monday.

The so-called thematic activity featured colorful art performances by professional singers and dancers, as well as by hundreds of amateurs aged between 13 and 74 years, to promote volunteerism and the Olympic Games.

Liang Wei, a volunteer program organizer, told the audience that the recruitment of volunteers for urban services is giving the public a great opportunity to experience and take part in the forthcoming Olympics.

The volunteers for urban services are people who will provide voluntary services at designated stations around the competition venues and in key areas of the city during the next Olympic Summer Games and Paralympic Games.

During the Games, some 500 service stations will be set up in Beijing's districts and counties and 400,000 volunteers for urban services will be needed to work for the members of the Olympic Family, spectators, tourists, as well as the ordinary citizens, in such areas as information, emergency response and translation.