Special report:
2008
Olympic Games
BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- About 1.85 million
tickets for the 2008 Olympic Games will go on sale as the second round of
booking starts Tuesday, the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee (BOCOG) said.
"The tickets will be sold on the 'first come, first
serve' basis in this stage," Rong Jun, head of BOCOG's ticketing center, told
reporters Saturday.
Orders from Chinese mainland residents and foreigners
living on the mainland can be processed on the website
www.tickets.beijing2008.cn, at 1,000 designated domestic Bank of China branches
and via the hotline (95-2008).
Rong said that each person is allowed to buy a
maximum of 50 tickets, while a limit of two tickets at most is applied for those
high-demand events.
Excluding those reserved for the Olympic Family,
sponsors and rights-holding broadcasters, more than seven million tickets are
available for sale, with about 40 percent being reserved for domestic sale.
According to BOCOG, the 63,000 tickets to the opening
and closing ceremonies at the 91,000-seat National Stadium, dubbed the "Bird's
Nest", and over two million tickets for sports events had been sold out during
the first stage between April and August this year.
To make the Olympics affordable to average Chinese
residents, about 58 percent of the tickets are priced at 100 yuan (about 13.3
U.S. dollars) or below, and 14 percent will be reserved for Chinese students for
10 yuan or less.
Ticket prices for the 28 sports sessions range from
30 yuan to 1,000 yuan. The most expensive tickets are for the opening ceremony
on Aug. 8, 2008, which cost up to 5,000 yuan.
Income from ticket sales is expected to reach about
140 million dollars and BOCOG is confident of reaching the target, Rong
said.
