Shanghai Daily news

Sales of Olympic Games tickets will resume next month after the booking system crashed due to overwhelming demand last week.

Games organizers said buyers will be allocated by lottery between December 10 and December 30, replacing the previous first-come, first-serve scheme.

However, buyers who have registered their details at Bank of China outlets and the call center of the Games' ticket service on October 30 will still enjoy priority for booking, said the statement.

More details on the new plan will be published soon, according to organizers.

A total of 1.85 million tickets were due to go on sale during the second round of sales last week.

But demand was much higher than organizers anticipated. The ticketing Website got eight million hits in the first hour of sales, while the ticketing hotline received 3.8 million calls, said Rong Jun, head of the Olympic ticketing center.

The system crashed.

Only some 9,000 tickets were sold in two hours; and the ticketing center confirmed that successful orders will be valid.

A total of seven million tickets are available for the Games, with about 75 percent reserved for domestic sale.

To make the Olympics affordable to average Chinese residents, about 58 percent of the tickets are priced at 100 yuan (US$13.35) or less, and 14 percent of events will be reserved for Chinese students at 10 yuan or less.

Ticket prices for the 28 sports sessions range from 30 yuan to 1,000 yuan. Tickets for the opening ceremony on August 8 will cost up to 5,000 yuan.