Empty seats unlikely in Beijing Olympics
15/5/2008 18:08
The empty seats that hurt the festive mood of the Athens Olympics won't be
seen in Beijing when the Chinese capital hosts the 2008 Games.
The final
batch of Olympic tickets for domestic spectators, previously expected to be sold
out in 36 days, had been snapped up within two days.
A total of 1.38 million
tickets for 16 sports, including boxing, soccer, volleyball and basketball, had
been put on sale since last Monday both at Bank of China branches and on the
official website.
Within two days, tickets for Beijing venues were sold out,
only leaving some for the soccer tournament in co-host cities Shanghai,
Shenyang, Tianjin and Qinhuangdao.
An official with the Beijing Organizing
Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) admitted that they had never expected
these tickets to sell so fast.
People all over the country showed great
enthusiasm in snapping up Olympic tickets. Thousands of people lined in long
queues and waited outside Bank of China outlets.
A Beijing resident surnamed
Liu said he had waited for four hours before getting tickets from the bank
counter.
"I bought tickets for track and field finals. I want to see Liu
Xiang racing in the final," he said, referring to the Chinese Olympic champion
and world record holder of 110 meters hurdles.
Wang Xudong, who purchased
three tickets for women's soccer preliminary games, said it was a regret that he
had not got the tickets for some hot games.
"Lucky for me that I have bought
a ticket for the Olympics' opening ceremony and a few semifinal tickets," said
Andy Lau, one of Chinese cinema's biggest stars, after he ran as the fourth
torchbearer in the Hong Kong leg on May 2.
"But I feel a bit disappointed
that I didn't have tickets for volleyball and diving, which are my favorite
sports," he said.
"I finally get a ticket and my dream to watch the Beijing
Olympic Games will come true," said Qu Zhen, a Tibetan University university
student, on the day when the tickets started to sell in Lhasa.
The online
ticket sales went smoothly except for some small problems.
"We have made
sufficient preparations for this time, including the tests of our network, our
credit card operation and our system of the acceptance of purchase
applications," said Xu Zheng, director of Olympic Affairs Office of Bank of
China.
"The preparation work was done in a very careful way because we had
lessons to learn from last year's experience."
The online system collapsed
due to overwhelming demand hours after the second round of sales started last
November, forcing organizers to revert to a lottery system.
"Through the
ticket sales, we feel once again the passion of all the people home and abroad
and their support for the Olympic Games," said Wang Hui, director of the media
and communications department of the BOCOG.
However, the third and final
round sale did not mean all the tickets had been sold out, said Wang. It just
meant the ticket booking had ended, and people who had not got the tickets still
had chance, she added.
After three rounds of ticket sales, some tickets will
likely be available at ticket booths around sports venues during the Games, said
an official from the ticketing department of the BOCOG.
Xinhua
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