(Beijing, November 28) Today saw the opening of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 Artistic Gymnastic International Invitational Tournament at the National Indoor Stadium, the first event held in this newly inaugurated stadium. Several hundred volunteers clad in orange have been providing enthusiastic services and warming people's heart amid the freezing weather. Hou Shudong, volunteer manager of the National Indoor Stadium, expressed his satisfaction with volunteers' services throughout today's competitions.

Hou gave an account of the work by volunteers, who can be seen everywhere in this event. According to him, the volunteer team of the National Indoor Stadium is composed of 750 people from nearly 20 units, among whom the absolute majority are university students, working in 19 business departments. Besides, the Administrative Center of Gymnastic Sports, GASC has also recommended some people with professional knowledge to act as volunteers. According to the uniform procedure for volunteers, these volunteers have undergone several rounds of selections and professional training, equipped with skills and knowledge required for volunteers.

Hou Shudong revealed that all these volunteers have passed interviews in both Chinese and English and are knowledgeable about Olympic spirits and ideas, in addition to certain competency in a foreign language. Among them, professional volunteers have knowledge background in a certain specialty. For example, volunteers in medicine, competition and language are mainly from, respectively, the Medical School of Peking University, Beijing Sport University and Beijing Foreign Studies University. After training and rehearsals, the volunteers are basically meeting the needs of the event. Former gymnastics world champions Mo Huilan and Guo Linyue have been invited to the training site to cheer them in their training. At present, the number of volunteers engaged in services for the audience is the largest, reaching 240. There are also a large number of volunteers for competition and media services. Dedicated and enthusiastic, these volunteers have won everyone's praise. We hope that they will further improve their skills as volunteers through the actual exercise on this event so as to provide better services for next year's Beijing Olympics, said Hou. 

Volunteers work very hard in the competitions, often coming to their post three hours prior to a competition and leaving one hour after its completion. Considering that it is turning cold, the National Indoor Stadium team raised funds by itself to buy uniform cotton clothes for all the volunteers in order to protect their health, while the stadium staff is not provided with such clothes. To encourage volunteers and strengthen team building, a temporary youth league organization of the National Indoor Stadium volunteers has been set up. On the noon of November 27, a simple and special birthday party was held for 23 volunteers whose birthdays happen to fall during the period of this event. These volunteers also received birthday cards and gifts. In addition, the daily volunteer messenger keeps everyone informed with the latest news about volunteers. Besides, they encourage volunteers to improve their services and boost teamwork by issuing badges and first-day covers etc. In view of the volunteers' actual conditions, the National Indoor Stadium team has arranged six to seven buses every day for the volunteers' transportation so that they can come to the venue in time and return to their campuses safely every day. At present, all the volunteers are working at their post full of confidence, in the hope that they will contribute to the ongoing event and the 2008 Beijing Olympics through their efforts.