Some of the volunteers who are giving up their time to work at the newly-launched B.C.-Canada Pavilion in Beijing were the focus of B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's trade visit to China on Thursday.
Campbell met with the volunteers after formally opening the pavilion which is located across the street from Tiananmen Square and is designed to promote trade relations and the 2010 Olympic Games.
From now until September, the pavilion will be run by 55 staff members from B.C. and hundreds of student volunteers.
One of them is Bethany Howard, a Victoria resident, who will work as a volunteer host until mid-June.
"People are just amazed," she said, referring to the visitors' reaction to the pavilion.
"They love the tree, they like the water, they like that we've taken the elements and made something that really involved things that they understand, as well as us."
VIP host Pearl Zhang, who lives in Richmond, B.C. but is originally from Shanghai, has taken a leave of absence from her property tax department job to work at the pavilion.
"I do my best to show Chinese how fantastic British Columbia (is)," she said. "(I) hope can bring some business back to Canada, that's my job. I hope I can do something."
For volunteers like 19-year-old UBC student Jessie Zhao, the Pavilion is an opportunity to return to Beijing, the city where she was born.
"Every year I come back to China, Beijing is becoming different ... and then look at the Canada pavilion here ... everything's connecting together," she said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Mike Killeen in Beijing
