Ticket sales for the 2008 Olympic Games have received
overwhelming response as many events including the opening and
closing ceremonies were over-subscribed, organizers said on
Wednesday.
"With just 10 days until the first phase of sales ends, we have
received 360,000 orders for more than 2.2 million tickets," Rong
Jun, head of the Beijing Olympic Ticketing Center, told
reporters.
"The opening and closing ceremonies were extremely
over-subscribed and a random computerized selection process will be
used to allocate the tickets," he added.
Rong said that it was difficult to predict the odds because more
orders are expected in the coming 10 days.
According to Rong, tickets to a dozen of sports including
badminton, table tennis, swimming, diving, gymnastics and
basketball are also very hot.
"On the whole, we are very satisfied with the situation. After
all, Chinese people are not used to buying tickets more than a year
in advance," he said.
In a country with a population of 1.3 billion, many believe that
only the luckiest have chance of watching the Games, though
three-quarters of the seven million tickets will be reserved for
domestic sales.
About 90 percent of the orders were delivered via the Internet,
and the rest through Bank of China branches or by mail, said
Rong.
In the first phase of ticket sales, people can wait until June
30 to place their orders and tickets will be assigned between July
and August.
The second leg of domestic sales will kick off in October and
run through December.
(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2007)