Thousands of Olympic student volunteers performed Mexican waves and chanted patriotic slogans and songs at a volunteer swearing-in ceremony attended by top national leaders, including Vice-President Xi Jinping, on Youth Day yesterday.

"I would say this is definitely the most important ceremony I have ever attended," said Diao Gang, a Chongqing-born 22-year-old computer major from Peking University, which also celebrated its 110th anniversary yesterday.

The climax of the event took place when the crowd at the 12,000-seat Beijing Workers' Stadium cheered and applauded loudly as Xi Jinping, who also heads the preparations for the Olympics and Paralymics, entered the Olympic boxing venue.

"The youth have been the most affirmative, the most active and the most lively force in Chinese society," Xi, accompanied by BOCOG President Liu Qi, Olympic Village Director Chen Zhili and eight other national leaders, said to the 6,000 young people from 76 Beijing-based universities.

The municipal government also hopes the 100,000 well-educated volunteers will be part of the force to tackle bad habits like spitting and smoking.

"At schools and hospitals, more and more young people are improving our community on a daily basis," said Chen Ying, 22, from Beijing Jiaotong University.

The nation's enthusiasm to take part in the Games was underlined by the more than 1.13 million applications to join the largest volunteer team ever at Olympic and Paralympic venues. In addition, more than 1.36 million people in Beijing and co-host cities wished to assist operations during the Games as 400,000 city volunteers.

About 35,000 volunteers have been tested during the more than 40 Olympic trial runs since 2007 and intense training is still under way. Some 2,000 volunteers gave up their vacations to take part in a new round of boot camp training in Beijing during the May Day holiday.

"The trainer told us we are the last line of security at Olympic venues," said Xie Tian from Chinese People's Public Security University, who will be a volunteer at security checkpoints.

(China Daily 05/05/2008 page3)