BEIJING, February 14, 2008 -- More than 930,000 people have applied to become volunteers for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games as of February 12 and the number of people from urban areas who have applied to be volunteers has risen to more than 1,080,000, according to the Volunteer Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

The department said the recruitment has won wide support from the public. The recruitment was launched on August 28, 2006 for Beijing residents. On January 19 and March 28 in 2007, the recruitment for people outside Beijing and people from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan was started.

The volunteer recruitment began in June 2005. It includes recruitment of Games-time volunteers, urban volunteers and other volunteers engaging in routine services.