Volunteers deserve thanks and gold medals

Reception desk at BOCOG

Volunteer Gabriel Barocio

Volunteer Hu Lichen

Ever since I arrived at the Main Press Center of the Beijing Olympics, I have been curious about the Chinese Olympics committee’s office here. Finally, today I got some time to speak to office director Zhou Jing, the publicity head officer of the State General Administration of Sports before the Olympics.

 

Zhou told me the office opened during the Athens Games in 2004 to help reporters better understand the Beijing Games. Under the same theory, the London 2012 Olympics organizing Committee has its office in the Beijing Olympics MPC as well.

 

She said the office acted as a center to help the media by providing information on Chinese athletes and handling interview applications. It also distributes hot tickets to reporters and arranges press conferences for the Chinese delegation. The office is soaked in Chinese décor and the reception desk is a mini version of the Bird’s Nest.

 

It is the sixth day of the Beijing Olympics and everything has gone well and China’s athletes have performed exceedingly well.

 

As good as our athletes have done, there is another group of people worthy of praise – the Olympic volunteers in the press center. They deserve a gold medal for their efforts.

 

I met two MPC volunteers today, Gabriel Barocio from Mexico and Hu Lichen from China. Barocio is studying Chinese at the Beijing Language & Culture University on a two-year scholarship program. He said the number of expat volunteers for the Beijing Olympics topped 22,000. He stands in the public work area to provide general information about transport, event schedules and the names of athletes.

 

Since he has finished his program, he will return to Mexico after the Olympics, but he’s still considering if he should come back to China to continue his Chinese study. Two years is not enough to master the Chinese language, he said.   

 

Hu is a major in Italian at the Beijing Foreign Language University. She works 12 hours a day three times a week at the language service desk. The desk can provide volunteers in most languages. Hu is from Jiangsu Province and her mother came to Beijing to cook for her. Hu has been unable to see the sporting events, but she watched the opening ceremony. She told me that she was very happy now.

 

So far I have had limited contact with expat journalists although some have asked for information about Chinese athletes. I found some of them were keen on exchanging press badges. Surprisingly, they had badges from several Olympic Games. It seems every news organization has their own badge for the Beijing Olympics. The first batch of badges for our group, Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group, had some mistakes, which made them more valuable in the eyes of overseas journalists. An expat journalist traded some older badges for our “wrong badges.”

 

Surfing on the Internet is one of the major recreations for me here. I read on some BBS forums that many people were not satisfied with BOB, which broadcasted the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony to China. People were worried that expats would not understand what director Zhang Yimou wanted to express with all the close-up shots.

 

However, a British diving coach I met told me he understood most of it even though he did not know the famous “four treasures” of Chinese invention. He added, “I have watched Zhang’s movies, but I think the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony was better than his films. It’s an amazing culture since so many people gathered together.”

[Last Modified by admin at 2008-08-15 03:56 PM ]
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