The ticketing system for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games collapsed Tuesday due to the massive demand for tickets as a second phase of ticket sales for people living in China began, officials told AFP.
More than 200,000 Internet ticket applications for the 2008 Games were submitted each second at some point on Tuesday, jamming the site. The BOCOG website received eight million hits in the first hour of sales alone, Beijing 2008 said in a statement.
The statement on the Games’ official website said, “because of this huge number of hits our system has been slow and people can’t get on to it. We are making efforts to improve the system and suggest subscribers remain patient and try later”.
Tickets were being sold on a first-come, first-serve basis through the BOCOG website, by phone orders or at Beijing branches nationwide.
Prospective buyers also had problems at banks. A bank employee at one Beijing branch told AFP, “we can’t process any orders here either. The whole system is down. I don’t think you can buy any tickets in any way right now”.
Xinhua quoted the head of the Bank of China’s Olympic affairs department Xu Chen saying he was shocked by the huge demand. He said, “we had tested the booking system several times but the number of buyers has been out of our expectations”.
More than 1.8 million tickets went on sale Tuesday to Chinese residents. Overseas sales are expected to begin in April.
