The Portrait of an "Olympic Host" -- A Battle Ground Scene of the "Beijing Olympics" -- Chinese push and shove for last chance Games tickets

http://img.iht.com/images/2008/07/25/25ticket-sale550.jpg
More than 40,000 people waited to buy Olympic tickets in Beijing early Friday when the final tranche
of 820,000 tickets went on sale. (Joe Chan/Reuters)

Chinese push and shove for last chance Games tickets

By Ian Ransom Reuters
Published: July 25, 2008

BEIJING: Unwashed, unfed and lacking sleep, tens of thousands of Chinese shouted, pushed and shoved
for their last chance at Olympic tickets on a hot and smoggy Friday, threatening to break through
heavy police cordons.

Ticket hopefuls and security officials screamed back and forth as tempers flared just two weeks
before the Beijing Games begin on August 8.

Loudspeakers blared over and over, telling people to queue patiently as minor scuffles broke out in
the crowd and between reporters and police who struggled to keep order.

Hong Kong television showed police shoving reporters as they tried to clear an area near the ticket
booths.

Police detained a photographer from the South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong-based newspaper
said, and destroyed reporters' cameras and equipment.
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"The Hong Kong reporter, surnamed Wong, did not obey police orders and broke through temporary
barricades to take photos," Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed spokesman from the Beijing
municipal government information office as saying.

Wong had kicked a police officer in the groin, Xinhua said, citing the spokesman.

A reporter at the newspaper said Wong had been released unharmed.

A police spokesman estimated the crowd at more than 40,000, and said officials were doing everything
they could "to keep the situation calm".

Even before dawn broke, some people tried to charge the gate, prompting a swift response from
officials, witnesses said.

Police ejected a number of people from the queue for being too pushy and detained at least one other.

Prospective buyers have been limited to two tickets at the same competition, but officials have
promised the last tranche holds tickets for events at every venue, if not every event.

SHOWPIECE STADIUMS

Many want tickets for an event in the National Stadium, dubbed the Bird's Nest, or the Water Cube,
the two showpiece stadiums that have changed Beijing's landscape.

Tickets for a raft of events had already sold out at booths around the city by 4:00 p.m. (9 a.m.
British time), including popular diving and football competitions, the Beijing Organising Committee
for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) said in a statement on its website.

One man surnamed Lei, from the eastern province of Anhui, was rewarded for his two-day wait in line
with tickets to the final of the 110 m hurdles.

"I just feel so lucky to be able to see Liu Xiang run at the Olympics," said Lei, 24, referring to
the Chinese hero and defending champion.

"It's been tough, it's very hot, but it's worth it to participate in the Olympics," said Wang
Zongmao, 73, who also queued for two days to secure tickets to a diving event.

Long queues had already formed by Wednesday afternoon, a day after Olympic organisers announced the
final tranche of 820,000 tickets would go on sale.

By Thursday, 10,000 people had formed a line snaking hundreds of metres away from the booth that
opened on Friday, many hunkering down inside tents or under umbrellas to shelter from the 35 degree
Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) heat.

Police threw bottles of water into the crowd, dozens of ambulances stood by to come to the aid of
those in line, and the hundreds of police and paramilitary People's Armed Police personnel were also
feeling the strain.

Tickets for the Games range in price from 5,000 yuan (369 pounds) for the opening ceremony to just
30 yuan for the softball preliminaries.

Beijing's sale of the 7 million-plus Olympic tickets on offer has been swift, but not without
incident. Prospective buyers complained on blogs and chat-rooms of not being able to complete
purchases after the third batch of tickets was released in May.

The former Olympic ticketing chief was sacked last November after the ticketing website crashed on
the opening day of the second round of sales.

Authorities are also going after scalpers. The Beijing News said 44 had been detained, including one
who had been selling 50 yuan tickets for a basketball match for 5,000 yuan.

(Writing by Lindsay Beck; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)

(For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road to Beijing" at
http://www.reuters.com/news/sports/2008olympics; and see our blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china )