The first group of volunteers from outside Shanghai arrived here Thursday, joining 172,000 local ones to serve visitors to the upcoming World Expo.

The 60-member volunteer team from Beijing, the national capital that host the 2008 Olympics, was headed by Deng Yaping, a retired renowned ping pong player and now deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) Beijing Municipal Committee.

They will work at the Beijing Pavilion and China Pavilion in the Expo venue for two weeks from May 1, Deng said.

Among them, the youngest is 18 and the oldest 70, she said.

Beijing selected about 200 volunteers from its 2 million registered volunteers and divided them into nine teams to serve the Expo, she said.

Most of them had worked for the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, the National Day parade and earthquake rescue work, she said.

"I hope volunteers from Beijing will carry on the Olympic tradition and provide quality service for visitors across the world," she said.

Before their trip here, the volunteers had trained for three days.

"I have collected lots of information about the Expo and its venues but still need to learn more as I have not been on the spot," said Xiang Tingkun, a member of the team and student from the Beijing International Studies University.

Another 1,200 volunteers will come to Shanghai from other provinces and cities to serve the six-month event.

The Expo planned to place 77,000 volunteers at the Expo venues and 130,000 ones at service stations in the city.

So far 72,000 volunteers have been in place in the venues and about 100,000 people have worked in the city, said Deng Xiaodong, spokesperson for the Expo's volunteer department, at a press conference here Thursday.

Among them, about 200 are foreigners and more than 80 are from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, Deng said.

About 90.6 percent of venue volunteers and 35.5 percent of city volunteers are college students.

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2010)