WITNESS: Volunteer 7768, which way to Bird's Nest?

Nick Mulvenney became Reuters' first sports correspondent in China when he moved to Beijing in early 2006. He has spent the last 2- years reporting on the preparations for the Olympics, a task that has taken him from the Chaoyang Park beach volleyball venue to Everest Base Camp.

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING (Reuters) - With more than 1.5 million volunteers in Beijing for the Olympics not every job is going to be glamorous -- just ask the dozen students doing their bit for the Games in the bowels of Wangfujing subway station.

Five-hour shifts giving directions to confused tourists may not be every teenager's idea of a fun way of spending the summer holidays but Wang Dandan for one was enjoying it.

"I think the job is fun and interesting," the 19-year-old law student said when I joined her team for a morning last week.

"Many people came to me to ask the way, and sometimes just to have a chat. They say 'your shirt is lovely', 'what's your phone number?', things like that."

As well as the 100,000 volunteers directly working on the Olympics, Beijing has recruited 400,000 "city" volunteers and more than a million "social" volunteers.

The project is driven by Liu Jian, head of both the Beijing Olympic volunteer department and the city's Communist Youth League, who hopes it will leave a legacy of volunteering long beyond the Games.

Wangfujing team boss Hao Bin, who welcomed me to the station which serves China's most famous shopping street, is an enthusiastic acolyte.  Continued...