Beijing tickets sold out

2008-05-07 10:13

Beijing - China's mad dash for Olympics tickets in Beijing ended on Wednesday with the final tranche earmarked for domestic customers sold out a month ahead of schedule, organisers said.

After tens of millions went online and queued at banks for the last 1.38 million tickets, all seats at venues in the capital and for equestrian events in Hong Kong had been snapped up, the organising committee said on its website.

Only tickets for Olympic football matches at Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin and Qinhuangdao were still available to domestic buyers in the sales period ending on June 9.

Beijing had allocated around 75% of the seven million tickets in total to its vast domestic audience, with the rest made available overseas through each country's national Olympic committee.

Huge numbers of Chinese went online or lined up at Bank of China outlets on Monday to buy tickets, but fans and official media complained of long delays due to the high demand.

A second phase, on a similar first-come, first-served basis, was launched in late October but had to be suspended for a month after excessive demand crashed the computer sales system.

Sales were eventually held under a lottery system.

Beijing, the venue for the vast majority of events, and its co-host cities will stage the Games from August 8-24.

- AFP