Nearly 40 percent of the volunteers who assisted during the Olympic Games will remain in Beijing for next month's Paralympics.

More than 74,000 Olympic volunteers were in Beijing this summer, including 320 overseas Chinese, 219 volunteers from Hong Kong, 84 from Macao and 74 from Taiwan, says Li Shixin, vice-director of the Volunteers Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

Liu Jian, BOCOG's volunteer department head, said at a press conference that the oldest volunteer was 103. He added that about 70 percent of volunteers were young people, drawn from all walks of life.

"Our volunteers are serving guests from all around the world with their hearty smiles and professional skills," Liu notes.

Some of the volunteers, especially those who worked in the National Stadium, wept last Monday morning when 2004 Athens gold medalist hurdler Liu Xiang pulled out of his first-round heat with an injury. Yet they maintained a remarkable level of professional service, even though they lost their smiles for a little while.

"I love watching the Games and I also love helping people. Now I am a volunteer, and I can do both," says an Iranian volunteer, Hooman, who is a doctoral student at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

"The Beijing Olympics offered me a good chance. I can serve the guests - not only with my medical expertise but also with my knowledge of Beijing. I tell them that people here are very nice and that the food is terrific," he explains.

Liu praised all the volunteers, from both home and abroad, for their diligent work.

"Some of them suffered sunburn because they had to work outdoors day after day. But they hardly complained."

Xinhua