CHINA: Excitment in Beijing as second batch of 2008 Olympic tickets go on sale

Tickets go on sale for the Beijing 2008 Olympics as excited people converge to grab a seat. Olympic fever took hold in Beijing on Tuesday (October 30) as tickets to the big event went on sale. The tickets are sold on a first come first serve basis and the queues are steadily growing. Prices range from around US$4 to US$400, depending on the popularity of the event. Football and basketball are the most popular with the crowds, but come with a premium--basketball games are about US$133 per person and the closing ceremony has the priciest tag at US$400. Mu Di was the first person in line this morning. She was so keen to beat the crowds that she arrived at two-thirty am. Although it was several hours until the next person arrived at seven, she says it was well worth the wait. "All the bank employees and guards can vouch for me, I was here, standing at the entrance door, at two thirty in the morning," said Mu Di. She now has four tickets for the 100 metre hurdle. Tickets are available through call centres, online and over the counter at China's national bank. Xu Chen is the General Manager at the Olympic Affairs Department of the Bank of China. He says he anticipated crowds today and is prepared for an excitable atmosphere as customers jostle to reserve their tickets in time. "Today there has been a sudden influx of people, of course, it will cause great pressure to the system but we are prepared. But, I don't think it will exceed our expectations," said Xu Chen. In order to prevent reselling of tickets, a limit has been set per person at 50 tickets. For the most popular competitions, there is a maximum of two tickets per person. Organisers are expecting to sell around 1.85 million tickets during this phase of ticket sales. The first batch of tickets were allocated through a lottery system-- this time, sales are scheduled to continue until all the tickets are sold.

ITN Source | October 30, 2007

Tags:. .event. .cause. .order. .hold. .football