Salute the volunteers

Beijing is such a spread-out metropolis that sometimes even long-term local residents may have to consult a map to navigate its constantly changing streets.

But no worries about it. These days, even total strangers can do it without a map, or guidebook at hand.

Yes. The volunteers. There are so many of them. Within and outside the venues of the Games. A total of 1.7 million, says the municipal government.