Tens Of Thousands of Chinese Wait Days for Olympic Tickets

Tickets are a hot commodity for the Summer Olympics in China next month. On Friday morning the final round of tickets went on sale on location at many of the venues in Beijing and other cities hosting events. With a final chance to be a part of the games in their home nation, tens of thousands of Chinese waited days for the chance to purchase tickets. Organizers were not prepared for the crowds.

The AFP reported that more than 50,000 people were in line in Beijing on Friday and at times the crowds became impatient.

"The police didn't have a clue how many people would come here and there was no organisation at all, it was chaos," said Wang Zhongliang, a delivery worker for UPS.

Police chief Xiong acknowledged it was "chaotic and difficult" to maintain order.

"Once the newspapers released the news about the ticket sale, too many people came at once so we had a security problem," he said.

If selling tickets to events causes such a stir, one has to wonder what kind of chaos could occur when the real crowds show up in August.

The BBC reported that police had to call in reinforcements at a select few ticketing booths.

Obtaining tickets to many of the events has not been an easy task. There has also been lawsuits brought by the USOC and IOC against a number of fraudulent ticketing sites operated out of the UK.

Face value on tickets to events in China ranges from roughly $4.50 to $145.

I actually purchased a pair of tickets to the much anticipated USA vs. China men's basketball game on August 10th through one of the fraudulent sites, Beijingticketing.com. After realizing the relatively affordable tickets seemed too good to be true, I contacted my credit card company hours later to try and cancel the transaction. Whether or not I get my few hundred dollars back remains to be seen.

Regardless of high demand for tickets it is clear that excitement for the highly anticipated games in China is growing and it's only going to get more interesting as 08/08/08 moves closer.

BEIJING, CHINA - JULY 24: (CHINA OUT) Residents wait overnight to buy Olympic tickets at a ticket booth at the Olympic Green on July 24, 2008 in Beijing, China. Starting on July 25, the remaining 820,000 Olympic tickets, of which 250,000 are for competitions held in the capital city, will be available for purchase by individuals at ticket booths of the Olympic venues. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)