30K volunteers needed for Hangzhou Asian Games

Another round of volunteer recruitment for the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 and Asian Paralympic Games has officially started, and those who hope to join can apply via various online channels, the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee said at a news conference on Wednesday.

From Nov 23 to Dec 31, up to 30,000 volunteers will be recruited. They are required to have volunteer service experience at large competitions, be proficient in a language such as Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Thai, Indonesian, Persian, Mongolian, Vietnamese and Cambodian, or have specialized knowledge of Asian Games sports.

Recruits are expected to volunteer in such areas as competition operations, language services, audience services, conference services, media operations, emergency aid, logistics and transportation, among others.

This round of recruitment is on top of the original pre-recruited volunteers in 2021, as they must confirm their volunteer intentions through the "Games Volunteer Recruitment System" before Dec 10.

Since the global recruitment of volunteers for the Games was launched in May last year, the total number of registered volunteers who meet the requirements reached 220,000 as of Oct 31, 2021, when applications closed, figures from the organizers show.

In the new round, applicants can sign up via the Games' official website, WeChat account or the "Smart Hangzhou 2022" mini-program on Alipay.

The 19th Asian Games were originally set to run from Sept 10 to 25 this year but were rescheduled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new dates are Sept 23 to Oct 8, 2023. Competitions will also be staged in the co-host cities of Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing and Jinhua in Zhejiang province.

Fang Xiaoying in Hangzhou contributed to this story.