Li, an undergraduate majoring in English, submitted his application in January. More than 20,000 students applied to become volunteers for the summit, according to the meeting's organizing committee.

"The enthusiasm from students is beyond our expectations," said Sun Jian, who works for the committee's working group of volunteers. "We've chosen the ones with better expertise that is particularly helpful for the summit, such as students majoring in foreign languages and computers."

Each volunteer has received about 40 hours of training before the summit, he said. "Besides lessons on etiquette, we've invited experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give the volunteers lectures on how the SCO works and the traditions of the countries participating in the summit."

Li has been appointed as a guide in the media center because of his expertise in English. There are other volunteers at the center who are fluent in Russian. They have to know about all events in the media center as well as information about Qingdao, because they are the ones the reporters go to first if they have questions, Li said.