Shanghai Municipality has formally launched its recruitment drive to find volunteers for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Yu Biao, director of the Shanghai Youth Volunteer Department, says that the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will recruit 800 volunteers in Shanghai, 700 of whom will work for the football matches held in Shanghai and the remaining 100 volunteers will go to Beijing to serve at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the Paralympics Games.

Yu says that Shanghai citizens have become more and more fond of taking part in volunteer work. He says that for every ten people that ask to volunteer, only one person is chosen for these types of events.

Shanghai citizens can log onto the website of Shanghai Youth Volunteer to submit their application to be a volunteer. The search for qualified volunteers will last until March 2008.