Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    BEIIJNG, July 31 (Xinhua) -- It was one o'clock in midnight, but Zhang Jiaman was still on duty, staying with 12 washing machines and waiting for patronage of journalists from around the world, his sole source of customers.

    He was not paid to work overnight and on seven consecutive days. It was the charm of the Beijing Olympic Games that lured the sophomore from the China University of Geo-sciences to stay at one of the basements in Green Homeland Media Village.

    "This is the first time that the Olympic Games comes to China. I am happy that I can do something for it," said Zhang in the laundry. In front of him you can see a book on advanced mathematics that he used to while the hours.

    He was one of about 100,000 volunteers working at the Summer Olympic and Paralympic venues and other facilities. The oldest is an old man aged 87. More than 1.12 million people applied to be volunteers, more than in any previous Games.

    China has a tradition to present the best for visiting friends, and now Olympic volunteers showcase China's hospitality.

    "It is a surprise for me to see volunteers everywhere. It seems that the number of volunteers in Beijing was 10 times more than those in the Sydney Games," said Ezra Shaw, an Australian photographer with the Getty Image, IOC's contracted photo provider on the Beijing Olympics.

    However, Shaw was not that accurate. There were about 47,000 volunteers for the Sydney Games, while Beijing has 100,000 in Olympic venues, 400,000 around the venues and one million community volunteers.

    The photographer said the volunteers were very helpful, and took out a piece of paper on which were the address and telephone number for a bar he wanted to go. "A volunteer wrote this for me," he added.

    Shaw was also impressed that preparations for the Beijing Games were done so early.

    Enthusiasm sometimes was seen among Olympic venue volunteers who had to showcase their best to be outstanding from more than one million applicants.

    An Ireland badminton coach was kind of embarrassed to be accompanied all the way to toilet by a young girl. "She stopped until we got to the door of a toilet," the coach grinned.

    However, few foreign journalists were not happy about this enthusiasm and voiced acid remarks.

    China is the world's most populous country, so it is no wonder that Beijing has the most volunteers, said Guilherme Roseguini, a journalist from Brazil's television TVGLOBO.

    "It is not bad. It is only different. People need to respect the difference," said Roseguini.

    During the 11th Asian Games, held here 18 years ago, the concept of volunteering, which was introduced by 19th century religious missions from Western countries, was strange to the Chinese.

    But it has became increasingly popular in the past few months. Chinese volunteers demonstrated their growing power as a new social force when many rushed to the southwestern province of Sichuan to help after the deadly May 12 earthquake.

    The application of more than one million people to become volunteers exhibits the Chinese people's feelings towards the Games. "The Chinese people want to share the fun of Olympiad," said Wang Ke, an editor working for a Shanghai web site.

    She would lose some 40,000 yuan (about 5,900 U.S. dollars) for being absent from her job for two months. "I was admired by all my colleagues for coming to Beijing to be a volunteer," she added.

    China's volunteer service has its roots in the 1960s, when the nation launched a campaign to learn from Lei Feng, a Mao Zedong-era model soldier known for his dedication, generosity and readiness to help, said Hou Baosen, who is in charge of volunteer work at the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League.

    In 2000, the day of March 5, which had been designated as a day to commemorate and learn from Lei, was named the "Chinese Young Volunteer Service Day." More than 25 million have registered as volunteers.