VOLUNTEER service for the upcoming China International Import Expo began on Wednesday. A total of 4,746 volunteers who were recruited from 40 universities and colleges in Shanghai will serve the event, together with 270 medical volunteers, said the Youth League Shanghai, the recruiter.

One in 10 volunteers have served at the expo in previous years.

Some of the volunteers have taken their third COVID-19 vaccine shot, and all of them will undergo nucleic acid tests for COVID-19 every other day during the expo.

About 500 volunteers attended the launch event at the National Exhibition and Convention Center on Wednesday.

The volunteers will serve the event in various ways, including pointing directions for people, serving VIP guests and the media, helping with registration services, collecting trade data, pandemic control and others.

Chen Yang, a third-year geomatics engineering student from Tongji University, will serve at the expo for the first time.

Chen served as a volunteer for his neighbors in his hometown, the city of Huanggang in Hubei Province, in March and April last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic in China was at its height, and later also in Urumqi, the Xinjiang Autanomous Region. He helped deliver parcels to people who couldn’t leave their apartments.

“Volunteers are not heroes but modest helping hands in their community, given tasks that are often simple and repetitive but at the same time indispensable,” he said. “Serving such a large event as the Import Expo, I’m looking forward to working together with my fellow volunteers to smooth out the experience for our guests.”

Having served at the expo three times, Li Zhen, a business management graduate student at the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, is one of the most experienced volunteers.

Li has served VIP guests and trade groups who attended the expo in the past three years as well as at other locations on site.

“I feel honored to be able to be a part of the team to help at one of the country’s largest international events, and after the first year, I felt that I had to return again as if I had an appointment with my fellow volunteers,” she said. The Fourth China International Import Expo will be held from November 5 to 10.