By Xinhua
Beijing : Thousands of young men, mainly from northern China, have been recruited to serve as Olympics guards and will receive security and etiquette training.
A group of 200 security guards from the northeastern province of Jilin arrived in Beijing Wednesday.
“This is the first group of security guards we selected for Beijing’s Olympics. There will be more,” said Liu Daqing, director of the Employment Service Bureau in Shuangliao, Jilin, who helped select the new guards.
“Security guards assigned to Olympics duties will undergo selective training in self-defence, first aid, emergency procedures, protocol and language,” said an official with the Dongcheng Division of the Beijing Security Guard Service Company.
The company, run by the city’s police bureau, will help police to keep order during the 2008 Olympics.
The company has not only asked all of its 30 divisions to select guards for Olympics duty but also sent invitation letters to labour service organizations in many locations to recruit new blood.
Gao Yu, deputy director of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, said China should encourage security guards to play a role during the Olympics and make them an important element in public security.
Beijing would need many security guards and volunteers to help games attendees go through security procedures and to maintain order at Olympics venues.