BEIJING, May 23 -- The Shanghai Science and Technology Museum hopes to recruit more Chinese and foreign volunteers to deal with a rapid increase in visitors, museum officials said yesterday.

    Over the past five years, the number of visitors to the museum has increased by more than 10 percent annually and last year it received three million visitors, five percent of whom were foreigners.

    "Our volunteers play a key role in making the museum more open to the public," said museum chairman Zuo Huanchen.

    Normally, the museum needs 60 volunteers everyday but it only has some 320 registered volunteers at present, mostly retired engineers, teachers and other intellectuals.

    To solve the shortage, the museum has asked universities to organize student volunteers. Their work will be counted as social practice by the university, museum managers said.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)