One hundred Hong Kong volunteers pledged to serve at the Expo 2010 Shanghai at a flag awarding ceremony held on Monday.

Speaking at the ceremony, President of Hong Kong-Shanghai Youth Exchange Promotion Association Andrew Yao said that about 1,000 applications for volunteering at the Expo had been received. A total of 100 volunteers selected by the association, aged 18 to 65, will serve at the Expo in July.

"Of the 100 volunteers, some 30 of them had served the Beijing Olympic Games and they came from all walks of life," Yao said, adding that the volunteers will be assigned to work at popular exhibition sites such as China Pavilion, Hong Kong Pavilion and Expo-axis.

In addition, a group of 600 university students from Hong Kong will go to Shanghai for an experiential tour from July 4 to 8 to visit the Expo, attend the Youth Week of Expo 2010 and exchange with volunteers from mainland universities. An inauguration ceremony for the tour was held together with the flag awarding ceremony on Monday.

Through organizing various exchange activities between Hong Kong and Shanghai, Hong Kong-Shanghai Youth Exchange Promotion Association aimed to increase recognition of the country and nationality among teenagers of the two cities.

(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2010)