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BEIJING: Massive demand caused the Beijing Olympic ticketing system to collapse on Tuesday as a second phase of sales for people living in China got under way, officials said.
More than 200,000 Internet ticket applications for next year's Games were submitted each second at some points on Tuesday, jamming the site, the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) said in a statement.
The BOCOG website received eight million hits in the first hour of sales alone, the statement said.
"The website and phone lines are jammed. Even I can't get through by phone to the ticketing centre," Wang Yue, a BOCOG spokeswoman, told AFP.
Just 9,000 out of the roughly 1.8 million tickets on offer on Tuesday were sold, BOCOG said, as it called on prospective buyers not to keep clicking on the site.
"The BOCOG Ticketing Centre advises ticket buyers to be patient and reminds online buyers to refrain from clicking on the same page repeatedly, which might add to the present traffic jam online," the statement said.
Tickets were being sold on a first-come, first-served basis through the BOCOG website, via phone orders or at Bank of China branches nationwide.
But prospective buyers had just as little luck by going to the banks.
"We can't process any orders here either. The whole system is down," a bank employee at one Beijing branch told AFP. "I don't think you can buy any tickets in any way right now."
The official Xinhua news agency quoted the head of the Bank of China's Olympic affairs department, Xu Chen, as saying he was shocked by the huge demand.
"We had tested the booking system several times, but the number of buyers has been out of our expectations," Xu said.
Just over 1.8 million tickets for the Games went on sale on Tuesday to people living in China, following a hugely popular initial round in June that sold 1.6 million.
China will eventually sell a total of seven million tickets for Games events over three phases, with about 75 percent going to residents of China and the rest to overseas buyers.
Overseas sales are due to start in April.
However, even if the problems are fixed, Rong warned that those living in China seeking tickets to some of the most popular events, including opening and closing ceremonies, basketball, swimming, gymnastics, badminton, and ping-pong, may be disappointed.
"With these events, I'm afraid it may be too late," said the head of ticketing for BOCOG, Rong Jun.
- AFP/so
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