Monday marked the 500-day countdown to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and organizers held a forum to look ahead to the volunteer program.

The theme of the forum is "Be an Olympic volunteer in the two-time host city of Beijing." During the meeting, a written proposal to promote voluntary services for the Games was launched. The organizers plan to recruit 27,000 volunteers, of which 12, 000 will be retained for the Paralympics.

The global recruitment system, which started in December 2019, has seen more than 870, 000 people apply, the youngest being16 years old and the oldest 86. The recruitment will end on June 30, 2021.

According to Teng Shengping, the head of the volunteer department, those who are not selected will have a chance to become city volunteers or participate in the "Welcoming Beijing 2022" activity.

Teng also outlined some of the basic qualities a volunteer should have. 

"The qualified volunteers need to meet three conditions. The first is to have good physical qualities and a hardworking spirit. For some outdoor events, the temperature sometimes can reach minus 30, so you really need to be prepared both physically and mentally," said Teng.

"The second is to know about winter sports. Winter sports in our country are not very developed, and we do not have so much experience about voluntary services. We hope through the event, we can build a team who knows both the sports and the services. The third is that the volunteers should show a good mental outlook. We require that every volunteer should be well versed in Chinese culture, be a storyteller of China and a showcase of the Chinese style of the new era."

Wang Ziqi is a graduate student at Tsinghua University and has worked in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics as a volunteer. He said the most impressive thing for him was the mutual help between people. 

"I want to give a little bit my help to the Winter Olympics, not only to help others know how the Winter Olympics will be but also to help people from other countries learn more about Chinese culture – like we did in 2008."

As the countdown begins, CGTN got a chance to get an inside look at the Olympic Village soon to be put to use.

"Centering on athletes" was one of the three themes that Beijing put forward while bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

There are three Olympic Villages for the Beijing Games, one in Beijing's urban area and the other two in Yanqing district in the northern part of the city and co-host city Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province. The architecture showcases the cultural features of the Beijing quadrangles and reflects the design theory of "athletes centered."

The showroom shows a 220 square meter unit, with each unit providing single rooms and one double. The set up abides by the standard of Green Olympics. The three winter Olympics centers will be completed at the end of this year and provide accommodations during the test events.

"The Yanqing Winter Olympics Village is designed according to the theory of northern Chinese villages, located among the forest as groups," Liu Lifeng, Yanqing Venue Construction Director of Bejing Major Projects, said.

"The construction content includes six athletes groups and a public group. The Village will provide services for coaches, athletes and officials for the two big events of alpine skiing and bobsleigh."