Countdown to Beijing 2022 | Youths from tropical countries eager to serve Beijing 2022

Taechinee Prasnakorn (front L) from Thailand and other foreign volunteers from University of Science and Technology Beijing take selfies at Wukesong Sports Center in Beijing, China, on Dec. 30, 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

Foreign students at University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) are glad to be volunteers of Beijing 2022.

By Chen Qianci, Xia Kangjing

 On the night of Beijing's first snowfall this winter, Taechinee Prasnakorn shared a video clip via her WeChat with a caption of "Look! How I enjoy the snow!"

The Thai student in her 20s did enjoy the first snowfall by sticking her face in the snow to try its taste and lying on the snowy ground waving her arms and legs up and down.

The first snowfall this winter has a special meaning to the girl, partly because she is among 10 international students at University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) who have been selected as volunteers for the upcoming Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

"I hail from a seaside city in southern Thailand, where I can go diving but there is no snow," said the girl who named herself in Chinese as Bai Na.

Bai is now in the last year pursuing her post-graduate degree at USTB. Though faced with the dual pressure of graduation and job hunting, Bai applied to be a volunteer last June, viewing the chance as a "must-do".

To be a Winter Olympics volunteer requires not only excellent language skills, but also a certain knowledge of the Games. The selected volunteers have to take 25 online courses and pass exams of each course with more than 85 points.

"It is so difficult that I have to repeatedly learn some courses to pass the exams," Bai said, adding that she would exchange key points of the courses with her fellow volunteers, including her classmate Nguyen Thu Phuong whose nickname is Fang Fang.

Sharing the same passion for ice and snow as Bai, the Vietnamese girl is still impressed by the popular theme song "Beijing Welcomes You" of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

"The theme song, together with the 2008 Games, marked where I got to know and became interested in China, especially the country's traditional culture. That's why I chose to major in Chinese in Hanoi and came to pursue further studies in Beijing," Fang Fang introduced herself with fluent Chinese.

"I feel so proud and lucky for the opportunity to be a Winter Olympics volunteer," said Fang Fang. "I've finished my graduation thesis ahead of time, and I don't have any travel plans in the winter vacation, so I have enough time and energy to serve the Games wholeheartedly."

Nyein Htike Zaw, a Myanmar graduate student keen on sports, never expected that he would learn snowboarding in China and compete on behalf of his motherland.

In an international snowboarding competition held in Ulanqab, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 2019, the beginner coming from a tropical country turned out to perform very well.

Gaining a plus with his snowboarding skills and competition experience, Nyein Htike Zaw or Wang Zhiqiang in Chinese, has won the interviewers' approval with a simple but sincere answer.

When asked what is volunteer and why does he choose to be a volunteer, Wang frankly answered: "Volunteer is to help who's in need, and I'd like to help others."

Unlike his fellows above, Wang hasn't learned Chinese before entering USTB. But through a year of intensive study, he's now attending classes all in Chinese and even planning to study for a PhD degree in China. "If you can speak Chinese, you will gain more opportunities in Myanmar," he said.

At the end of last December, all the 10 foreign volunteers together with 127 Chinese volunteers of USTB entered the Wukesong Sports Center for venue trainings for the first time.

With less than 20 days to go before the opening of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, the volunteers are all set to serve the sporting event.