(BEIJING, Feb. 28) -- The number of volunteer applicants for the Beijing Olympic Games and Paralympic Games has surpassed 350,000 since the registration process began on August 28, 2006, according to the Volunteer Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

The applicants include 180,000 students and teachers of Beijing's universities, 80,000 Beijingers from other sectors and close to 100,000 from other provinces and municipalities outside Beijing, said Li Shixin, member of the Volunteer department on Wednesday.

The Beijing Olympic Games need about 70,000 Games-time volunteers and the Beijing Paralympic Games another 30,000. They work directly for the Games.

According to the organizers, the Beijing Olympic Volunteer Program includes six working projects and one theme campaign -- "Smiling Beijing". The projects are: the "Towards the Olympics" Voluntary Service Project, the BOCOG Pre-Games Volunteer Project, the Games-time Volunteer Project, the City Volunteer Project, the Social Volunteer Project and the Olympic Volunteer Work Legacy Transformation Project.

During the Olympic and Paralympic Games, over 400,000 city volunteers will offer voluntary services in the city. They will be assigned to 2,000 city voluntary service sites at major traffic hubs, commercial networks, scenic spots, hospitals, hotels, and cultural centers. The number of social volunteers in the communities is expected to exceed one million, while that of the participants in the "Smiling Beijing" campaign will be tenfold as much.

Li said the organizers will do their best to select excellent people and assign them to appropriate positions. He suggested that those who failed to be selected should join other volunteer projects.