BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Had the examiners not been wearing the green uniforms, the interview might be taken as one for art college.

Some girls were dancing, some were singing and others were playing musical instruments.

Cao Liuliu sat in front of an officer, holding a pencil. Ten minutes later, face of the officer appeared on canvas. People beside her gasped in admiration.

"Competition of military recruitment this year is so fierce. We need to display our long suit so as to get enrolled," said the 22-year-old from the Nanjing Arts Institute in east China's Jiangsu Province.

Different from previous years, China for the first time recruits female soldiers in 2009.

"The female soldiers will mostly be working for communication, health care and entertainment such as dancing and playing musical instrument," said a local military recruitment official in Jiangsu.

Thousands of female soldiers will be recruited especially for the upcoming World Expo next year. They are supposed to become guide and security guards.

In Jiangsu, more than 2,000 registered in the provincial military recruitment office during the first three days, while 13 city-level recruitment offices in the province received an average of 500 each.

In the northeastern Jilin Province, thousands of girls applied to become soldiers, while just 200 are to be accepted. Many started to queue for registration at 6 a.m. in the freezing morning, where temperature was 12 degrees Celcius below zero.

The 22-year-old You Qi from Changchun Normal University was a major in Chinese literature, but she said to become a soldier had always been her dream.

Her view was shared by Wang Yuefei, a law major in the Changchun Taxation College.

"I watched the National Day parade and I found the women soldier so cool," said the fashionable girl with light makeup.

The grim situation of job hunting was also a reason for them to apply to become soldiers.

In addition, college graduates could gain a string of privileges after serving two years in the army.

According to Wang Naigang, vice director of the Jilin provincial military recruitment office, college graduates could enjoy up to 6,000 yuan (about 882 U.S. dollars) each year as reimbursement for tuition fees. Families of the urban students could get 150 yuan (about 22 U.S. dollars) per month while those of rural students could get a yearly 4,000 yuan (about 588 U.S. dollars).

During the first three years after retirement from the army, if the student want to pursue a master's degree, he or she could get a 10-point bonus to the entrance exam of postgraduate studies. Those would get merit of second class or above while serving in the army could be accepted by the universities directly without exam.

"This is really attractive," said Xi Xueni, an international trade major who had been working in an enterprises for a year and just quit her job to apply for military service.

Recruiting college graduates is a win-win measure, which benefits the army as well.

The People's Liberation Army has previously relied mostly on high school graduates and the unemployed.

China's State Council, or Cabinet, revised the government's recruitment regulations in September 2001 to enlist college students for the first time in a pilot scheme. More than 2,000 students around the country were recruited in the first year.

Xu Zuolin, a professor with the National University of Defense Technology, said that the fast development of military technologies required more knowledgeable soldiers.

"Battles in modern societies were technology battles and information battles," he said.

The renowned Fudan University in Shanghai had sent a total of 54 students to the army. Among the seven who were recruited in 2006, one person got a second-class merit during his two-year service, one got a third-class merit while the rest five were all selected as "outstanding soldiers". 

(www.eduwo.com, Anna)