Buyers snapping up Games tickets: report

BEIJING: Half the tickets put up for sale in China for next year's Beijing Olympics have been snapped up 15 months before the Games begin, state media said on Wednesday.

China put 2.2 million tickets on offer for the home market in April and within a month 230,000 people had booked more than a million, Xinhua news agency said.

A total of seven million tickets will be sold for the 2008 games with 75 per cent, or more than five million allocated to the host country.

Half of China's tickets went on sale n the first ticketing phase starting April 15 and the remainder will go on sale in November and December.

Orders are accepted on an equal footing for first-phase sales which will close June 30. Tickets for oversubscribed events will be allocated by random computer selection in July and August.

Second-phase sales are on a first-come, first-served basis starting November.

Overseas sales are being conducted by Olympic committees of the individual countries and territories, 130 of whom have already applied to Beijing for ticket allocations.

Rong Jun, head of the Olympic Ticketing Centre, said seats for the opening ceremony, basketball and diving competitions were top sellers so far, but gave no details, Xinhua said.