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Posted Thursday, April 24, 2007 |
Tickets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be embedded with a wireless
memory chip and printed with specialty ink in a bid to curb fakes.
China is taking measures to avoid counterfeits after the 7 million
tickets for the Aug. 8-24 event went on sale on Sunday. Three-quarters
of the tickets - priced from 30 yuan ($4) to 5,000 yuan - are for the
home market and the rest overseas.
High-demand sports events including the 2006 Soccer World Cup and
Champions League final have been targeted by forgers.
"Fake tickets are bound to surface during every Olympic Games,'' Rong
Jun, director of ticketing sales at the Beijing Organizing Committee,
said at a briefing in the Chinese capital on Sunday. "We want to use
the most advanced technology to stop fake tickets."
The use of so-called radio frequency identification memory chips will
help organizers combat pirated tickets as well as speeding up entry
into venues, Rong said.
Competition tickets will sell for between 30 yuan and 1,000 yuan,
while entry to the opening and closing ceremonies will cost 150 yuan
to 5,000 yuan, according to the Beijing Organizing Committee. Tickets
will be available for collection a month or more before the start,
organizers said.
Overseas sales will be handled by the individual country's National
Olympic Committee and its ticketing agent, Rong said. About 14 percent
of tickets will go to students on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong,
Macau and Taiwan and will cost between 5 yuan and 10 yuan. Ticket
sales will raise $140 million.
Personal Limits
Buyers are limited to two tickets for popular competitions such as the
men's basketball finals and one ticket for the opening and closing
ceremonies. Local residents will get 26,000 tickets, or 41 percent of
the 60,000 on sale, for each of the opening and closing ceremonies and
must submit a photo.
Chinese residents must also provide passport or identity card numbers
when ordering tickets. The stored personal details will be destroyed
after the Games, Rong said.
Domestic sales will take place in three stages. In each phase, Chinese
residents can place orders either through the official ticketing Web
site, the organizing committee's ticketing phone hotline or at
designated Bank of China branches countrywide.
Tickets sold domestically will be allocated randomly in the first
phase and on a "first-come-first-serve" basis thereafter. Organizers
won't replace tickets that are lost, stolen or damaged. Tickets for
the opening and closing ceremonies can't be transferred
"indiscriminately" and holders must apply to switch them, Rong added.
Beijing may receive 800,000 visitors during the 17-day event and is
spending an estimated $160 billion on public works including new
roads, subways and sports stadiums for China's first Olympics.
Beijing wants to ensure fair and transparent ticketing sales, Wang Wei,
the organizing committee's executive vice president, said on the same
day.
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