Special report:
2008 Olympic
Games
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A man waits to book Olympic taickets on
the official ticketing website Oct. 30. The sale of the second batch of
Olympic tickets was suspended after the booking system collapsed under
overwhelming demand on Tuesday. (Xinhua Photo)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The sale of the second batch of Olympic tickets has been suspended after the booking system crashed under overwhelming demand on Tuesday, the first day tickets became available.
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) said Tuesday night in a statement that they had decided to temporarily halt domestic ticket sales to improve the technical system and will announce new ticketing information on November 5.
"Because of the overwhelming volume of page visits, the technical system was unable to perform the tasks well enough, and many applicants were unable to successfully submit their applications," said the statement posted on BOCOG's website.
"We sincerely apologize to the public," it added.
The first-come-first-serve scheme had 1.85 million tickets on sale through the booking website, a hotline and 1,000 designated branches of the Bank of China.
But demand was much higher than organizers anticipated. According to the Beijing Olympic Ticketing Center, the official ticketing website (www.tickets.beijing2008.cn) saw 8 million hits in the first hour starting 9 a.m., while the ticketing hotline received 3.8 million calls.
About 43,000 tickets were successfully purchased before the system crashed half an hour after the sales started, more than 90 percent of them through the ticketing website, said Rong Jun, head of the Olympic ticketing center.
A total of 7 million tickets are available for the Games, with some 75 percent reserved for domestic sale. The first 1.6 million tickets were allocated after a lottery earlier this year. The third phase - from April to August next year - will also sell tickets on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Booking system crashes under huge
demand for Olympic tickets
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|
A man waits to book Olympic taickets on
the official ticketing website Oct. 30. The sale of the second batch of
Olympic tickets was suspended after the booking system collapsed under
overwhelming demand on Tuesday. (Xinhua Photo)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The booking system crashed under "unexpected" huge
demand for the second batch of Olympic tickets when sales started on Tuesday
morning.
According to the Beijing Olympic Ticketing Center, some
9,000 tickets were sold out within two hours after the 1.85 million tickets went
on sale at 9 a.m., while the official ticketing website
(www.tickets.beijing2008.cn) saw eight million hits in the first hour and more
than 200,000 orders were received every second.Full story
2nd phase of Olympic ticket sales
kicks off
BEIJING, Oct. 30 -- Tickets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics
are again available for mainland citizens as the games organizers kicked off the
second stage of Olympic ticket sales on Tuesday.
According to the BOCOG website, 1.85 million tickets
covering all sporting events at the upcoming Games will be sold until late
January 2008. Full story
