Beijing security guards assigned to Olympic Games duties will
undergo training in self-defence, first aid, emergencies
procedures, protocol and languages, a source with the Games
security company said on Sunday.
"We have selected about 1,000 of the 5,000-strong team of
qualified guards to receive the intense training," said an
official, who only gave his surname as Chen, of the Dongcheng
Division of the Beijing Security Guard Service Company.
The company, run by the city's police bureau, will help police
during the 2008 Olympics and has asked all of its 30 divisions to
select guards for Olympic duty.
Chen said the Dongcheng division was the first in the capital to
announce training plans and many more would soon follow suit.
The Beijing Olympics preparation authorities said at least
100,000 professional security guards, recruited across China, along
with many more volunteers would be deployed to ensure a "safe
Olympics".
Chen said the guards would have to take intense training in
wrestling, patrol, emergencies procedures -- such as how to deal
with bomb threats -- and the company would hire tutors to teach
protocol and foreign languages.
"The focus will be on spoken English, especially the most
commonly-used terms like how to properly say 'Hello'," he said.
Chen said the police would also help organize check-point
inspection training, as that is expected to be a major part of the
work of security guards during the Olympics.
China has more than 2,300 private security guard service
companies with 1.1 million staff.
(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2007)