Olympic Opening ceremony tickets getting hot (photo attached)

Updated：2007-06-21

(BEIJING, June 20) -- Since the launch of the ticketing program, over 360,000 orders have been made for a total of 2.2 million tickets to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, nearly one third of the supply volume.

Most buyers are swarming to get the tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies and the demand has overtaken the supply line of 26,000 for the first phase of the ticketing program, which is due to end on June 30, 2007.

It is now certain that the distribution of the opening/closing ceremonies' tickets will be decided by lot, said Rong Jun, director of the Ticketing Center of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

Mr. Rong Jun

Other much sought-after tickets are for football, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, diving and gymnastics. "Demand closely reflects the popularity of the sports and the athletes' performances," Rong said.

"However, sales for some little known sports such as triathlon, sailing and mountain bike, have surpassed our expectations", he added.

The official ticketing website (www.tickets.beijing2008.cn) is the most efficient way to order tickets and one million users have already registered. According to Rong, some 90 percent of the orders are made online.

He said overseas ticketing is also brisk. So far 130 national and regional Olympic committees and their distributors have signed ticketing agreements with BOCOG, which will fix their quotas in due time.