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Book Olympic Tickets Now

Chinese nationals and foreigners living in China can now book some of the more than seven million tickets available for the 2008 Olympic Games, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad said on April 15.

Orders can be processed via a Web site (www.tickets.beijing2008.cn) or at any of 1,000 designated Bank of China branches, but tickets will not be delivered until June 2008. “All the tickets to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies as well as half of the tickets to 28 sports are on offer in the first phase of sales which will last until June 30,” Rong Jun, head of the Olympic Ticketing Center, said during a press briefing.

A second phase of domestic sales will begin in October 2007 and will run through December 2007. Remaining available tickets from the first phase and the other 50 percent of sports tickets reserved for the Chinese public will be on sale during this period. The public can also book tickets in phase two by calling the BOCOG ticketing call centre (+86 10 952008). Foreigners and residents of China’s Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan will be able to buy Olympic tickets through their National Olympic Committees or from designated outlets at the same price, said Rong.

Everyone is allowed to buy only one ticket each for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, two for high-demand sports sessions and three to five for other events.

Excluding those reserved for the Olympic Family, sponsors, rights-holding broadcasters and security guards, some 63,000 tickets are available for the Opening Ceremony that will take place in the 91,000-seat National Stadium (Bird’s Nest).

To make the Olympics affordable to average Chinese residents, about 58 percent of the tickets are priced at 100 yuan (US$12) or less, and 14 percent of all tickets will be reserved for Chinese students for 10 yuan (US$1.30) or less.

Ticket prices for the 28 sports sessions range from 30 yuan (US$3.50) to 1,000 yuan (US$127).

The most expensive tickets are for the Opening Ceremony on the evening of August 8, 2008, which cost 5,000 yuan (US$646). The cheapest tickets for that event are 200 yuan (US$26).