International Volunteers to Serve World Military Games

Ninety-one candidate volunteers pose for group photos at Huanghelou Tower before receiving a training session on Saturday. [For chinadaily.com.cn]

Some 90 international students were selected as potential volunteers to serve at Wuhan's symbolic attraction, the Yellow Crane Tower, or Huanghelou Tower, in an effort to help make the city more international in the run-up to the seventh World Military Games in Wuhan set for October.

Ninety-one international students from countries including Russia, Canada, Thailand and Egypt from universities around the central Chinese city gathered at the tower on Saturday for their first training session.

Huanghelou Tower, sitting at the south side of the Yangtze River and dating back as early as 223 AD, was built as a military border frontier, but later became a tourist attraction after the Jin Dynasty united the Yangtze area (280 AD). The tower gained widespread fame because of the rich collection of poems it inspired in the following dynasties. Visitors can enjoy a full view of the city at the top of the 51-meter-high tower built on Sheshan Mountain, which stands 61 meters above the Yangtze River.

Professional tour guides for the tower showed the students around and taught them how to illustrate the poems to visitors. The students will get trained in the subjects of ancient architecture and poetry, calligraphy, and the art of gardening. The top 25 students will become official volunteers at the tower serving the military games.

The military games will be held Oct 18 to 27.