"Hello, we are the Xiaoxiao Team from Beijing and we are collecting smiles as a gift for the Olympic Games."

"Will you please give us your smile?"

So went the appeal from five beaming, young adults, as they arrived in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, on Monday.

Holding the mascot "Xiao Bai" of the Xiaoxiao Team, passers-by smile for a photo for the volunteers' team in Changsha, Hunan Province, last Monday.

The provincial capital marked the last stop of their countrywide tour.

For the past month and a half, the group has been soliciting smiles from 14 cities, from Beijing to Shanghai, and Shenzhen to Wuhan.

The volunteers snap the smiles they garner for a photo album.

The team's leader, Li Xiang, conceived the idea two months ago.

Li wrote in an article on websites www.mop.com and www.baidu.com: "Smiling is the most beautiful expression of human beings, for it makes two strangers feel kindness and warmth for each other...

"We want to gather smiles of people from different places, to feature us Chinese and to welcome the world."

Many responded to that post, subsequently forming the Xiaoxiao Team - where Xiao literally means smile, in Chinese.

Li Haowen, a senior from Sichuan Normal University, is one of the core members of the team.

He worked as an intern in Beijing two months ago and formed the overall plan with Li Xiang - covering publicity on the Internet, fundraising, itineraries and research. It was a "tiring but happy experience", he said.

The team continues to attract wide attention ever since it formally launched its drive in the capital on November 22.

Many signed up on the Internet, but the final traveling team collecting smiles is made up of only five members, as not many could find the time for the tight schedule.

Still, fans of the campaign are growing.

Celebrities including actress and director Xu Jinglei, pop singer Ji Jie and popular band Back Dorm Boys, have all been supporting the Xiaoxiao team.

And everywhere they went, the volunteers received warm welcomes from residents.

They have collected tens of thousands of smiling faces.

In Sanya, Hainan Province, they came across Li Yueming, a former member of the national women's volleyball team, who, having known of Xiaoxiao through the Internet, also gave her smile to the volunteers.

At the same, the smile collectors have also had their fair share of disappointments.

In Shenzhen, a number of residents did not trust them and refused to be photographed.

The team did not let such incidents dampen their spirits.

"Most residents were warm-hearted and cooperated as they knew about our aim," Li Xiang said.

"We have a sense of accomplishment, as our efforts dissolved people's initial suspicions and made them smile."

A young couple, the first "target" of the team in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, smiled happily without hesitation when asked. They said the campaign was interesting and meaningful.

The team now spends every day sorting out the enormous collection of photos, but their enthusiasm remains unabated.

Xiao Zhao, the photographer of the Xiaoxiao team, said: "The hearty smiles of people are like magic, blowing away our tiredness."

(China Daily January 4, 2008)