Taiwan volunteers spread Olympic spirit, island warmth

This Spring Festival holiday, a Winter Olympics volunteer team of 10 young Taiwan residents has been providing services to people in Beijing and promoting the Winter Olympics culture.

The team consisted of seven students studying in universities in Beijing and three young people working in the city.

It was organized by the Youth Federation of Haidian District in the capital. The volunteers were based at the east gate of Black Bamboo Park, which witnessed a huge flow of people over the holiday.

The park is near the Capital Indoor Stadium, the venue for short track speed skating and figure skating during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

From Wednesday to Sunday, they organized activities to promote the Games among local residents, including a short quiz about Winter Olympic knowledge.

Visitors were able to learn the dance of the Beijing Winter Olympics song, "Together for a Shared Future" and could also take pictures with the official mascot, a cuddly panda with an ice crystal shell called Bing Dwen Dwen.

To share a taste of Taiwan culture, the volunteers taught visitors how to say their good wishes for the Games in the Minnan dialect, which is spoken in southern Fujian province and in Taiwan. Those who successfully learned won prizes.

Their leader, 32-year-old Chen Wen-cheng from Changhua in Taiwan, is a teacher at the department of physical education at Peking University.

"I am truly proud of our country for hosting this grand Winter Olympics," he said."I hope the volunteer service station will serve as a display window for Olympic culture and a window for people from the mainland and Taiwan to communicate," he said.

Zhangyi1@chinadaily.com.cn