CHINA: OLYMPIC GAMES - "Come to Beijing for the Olympics, you will be greeted with a smile!" The Beijing Olympic Volunteer Association starts campaign, dubbed "Smiling Beijing" at the Great Wall of China

As many as 5,300 people gathered at the Great Wall of China on Sunday (October 29) to send out the message : "Come to Beijing for the Olympics, you will be greeted with a smile!" The Beijing Olympic Volunteer Association started a campaign, dubbed "Smiling Beijing", in August to encourage Chinese to create a friendlier environment for the 2008 Olympics. Volunteers from different parts of the country joined Sunday's ceremony to kick-off the 'smile' campaign. Groups representing 56 Chinese minority ethnic groups were also present, showing off their colorful traditional costumes. "Smiling is a global language. When foreign people arrive in Beijing during the Olympics, they probably won't know any Chinese. But a smile can express everything. The message that a smile can pass on to them is that the Chinese people, Beijing, and all the minority groups here welcome them, " said student Yang Ying, a member of the Bai minority group. The slogan for the campaign is 'A smile is Beijing's best business card'. Li Hui, another college student showed off her teeth whites in a wide smile. "Smiling is a very important thing to do. Smiling passes on my feelings for others. Like people's eyes, smiling can make other people have a sense of warmth and caring," she said. By 2008, Beijing will need up to 70,000 volunteers to help with the Olympic Games. The Olympic Volunteer Association has been recruiting and training volunteers who can speak a foreign language. College students have become the backbone of the volunteering community, so most of the 5,300 grins at the Great Wall on Sunday came from students of various universities around the capital. Wang Ying, one of "Smiling Beijing" organisers, said that not only college students, but the entire population of capital Beijing's 15 million people and beyond, need to put on a smile for the Olympics. "A few million people will flock to Beijing by 2008. By then, if the entire city speaks little English and hasn't learned to smile, it would be a horrible thing. We are getting Beijing prepared. Older people here might speak no English, but they can smile. A smile is an expression of warmth," Wang said.

ITN Source | October 31, 2006

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