The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games holds a press conference about sale of tcikets for the 2008 Olympics on Sunday, April 15, 2007. [Photo: beijing2008.cn]
More than seven million tickets are now on sale for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. They can be bought on-line from the Olympic website or from 1,000 branches of the Bank of China.
The Beijing Organizing Committee for Olympic Games wants to make sure the tickets are affordable and available.
A quarter of the seven million tickets will be sold overseas.
For popular events, where application exceeds availability, tickets will be allocated by a random draw.
Wang Wei, vice president, BOCOG, said, "On the basis of thorough investigation and research, we have made the prices of tickets acceptable for most ordinary people. We will also have special tickets for students of primary and middle schools."
Tickets for more than half of the sports sessions will cost less than 100 yuan, which is about 12 US dollars. Tickets for the opening ceremony will range from 200 to 5,000 yuan, about 25 to 650 US dollars. Some tickets will be reserved for young Chinese people and children, to encourage them to see sports, and these will cost less than 50 US cents each.
Apart from tickets reserved for the Olympic Family, sponsors, security and broadcasters, some 63,000 tickets are available for the opening ceremony that will take place in the newly built National Stadium on the 8th August 2008.
Rong Jun, director Olympic ticketing center, said, "The domestic public has access to about 40 percent, which is higher than the Athens Games in 2004."
Foreigners, as well as residents in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan will be able to buy Olympic tickets through their National Olympic Committees or from designated outlets.