How to get your hands on some Olympic tickets

Weren't in town for round one? Thought you skip the rigmarole of round two and just buy direct in round three? Get caught on a page that never finished loading during stage three? Only find out about round four when it was too late? Whatever the cause, you now have to endure countless conversations revolving around who's got what and are forced to listen as friends and colleagues brag about that great game of beach volleyball they watched last night or how they're really looking forward to watching the 110m hurdles live. To add salt to the wound, when you watch the games on TV you see hundreds of empty seats smiling mockingly at you from the screen! No matter how it came about, if you've found yourself in the Olympic city without a ticket and you still want to see some events, keep reading below for some tips of how to get close to the action:

The Beijinger Classifieds

The Beijinger Classifieds has been going crazy for the past week as people search for and sell Olympic tickets. With prices ranging from the very reasonable (RMB 200) to the ridiculous (RMB 6000) – in fact we delete any ads that are too pricey – it's a good place to look for unwanted or extra tickets. Most of the very popular events are advertised for around 2-3,000 kuai but it's a good idea to wait and buy tickets on the day, so for example you can get tickets to what should be a great match between the Chinese and Cuban women's volleyball teams tonight for just 250 kuai each. Examples of other bargains include tickets to the men's basketball at RMB 200 a pop (it's already been taken down) and even free tickets! For more see the For Sale/Wanted section of the Beijinger classifieds or subscribe to the RSS feed here.

At the Gate – Scalpers and Swappers

There have been conflicting reports about the ease of buying unwanted tickets at the gate. On our forum people have reported that boxing tickets at the Workers' Gymnasium are relatively easy to find but that other venues are more tightly monitored. However, a series of articles (1, 2 , 3 and 4) in today's overseas press have said that scalping is being done out in the open and not being policed.Also, best to use caution as it is illegal and you might spend the afternoon filling in a crime report rather than watching the beach volleyball.

Guanxi

When asked at a recent press conference as to why there have been so many empty seats at a lot of the Olympic events, BOCOG Vice President Wang Wei offered several possible explanations, one of which was that a large number of tickets were provided to corporate sponsors and journalists and that these VIP types might not be so interested in watching the preliminaries of events. Given this, if you know anyone who works for, or is associated with any of the sponsors of the games, it might be worth asking if they have any spare.

Give up Smoking

According to a report in Monday’s Beijing News, one man has probably really pissed off his friends and family by deciding to give away all of the ten tickets he managed to get in the second, third and fourth rounds of Olympic ticketing. Xiong Wei is just a regular guy who has decided to offer his tickets to anyone who agrees to sign a contract that commits them to give up smoking for one year. While Xiong Wei admits that hey has no way of forcing participants to keep their promise, he plans to keep in close contact with the ticket winners over the next year, monitoring their progress and offering support. We imagine Xiong Wei probably isn't expecting any applications from foreign smokers, but if you've been looking for an excuse to quit and can get by in Chinese it just might be worth your while to drop him a line. You should send an e-mail with your personal info (real name, educational background, work unit, phone number and age) to ky2008305@yahoo.com.cn the day before the event you'd like to win a ticket to.

Mr Xiong is offering tickets to the following events:

Aug 13: 5pm Mens Football Semi finals at Workers Stadium
Aug 14: 12.30pm Mens Volleyball at Capital Gymnasium (Brazil v Russia)
Aug 15: 9am Mens Basketball at Wukesong

Non-ticketed Events

You can also watch the non-ticketed sessions like the marathon and cycling. Details of how to watch the cycling can be found at this earlier post (but all the road cycling events have already finished) and details of the marathon route (women set off from Tiananmen on Sun, Aug 17 and the men the following Sunday) can be found here.

Events outside Beijing

Remember all those long queues in late July as the fourth round of Olympic tickets went on sale? Well, it seems they were restricted to Beijing, the tickets to Olympic events taking place outside of Beijing went on sale at the same time but a lot of them are still available:

Tianjin

According to the Tianjin Olympic Stadium, tickets are still available for this Friday's quarter final of the women's football (soccer) between Brazil and Norway. Tickets to the 6pm game are likely to be available on the day of the match too. It also gives you an excuse to give the new high speed train linking Beijing and Tianjin a spin. For more details and a schedule of the 30 min express train, see here. Tickets can only be bought at the Tianjin Olympic Stadium ticketing booth from 9am-1pm, but if you’re worried about making the trip in vain, call (022) 2382 0932 (Chinese-language service only) for up-to-date details.

Fri Aug 15
18:00 Women's Q/Final
Brazil vs Norway

Shanghai

For the very committed, according to Shanghaiist, tickets to Shanghai matches are also available, but you’ll need to purchase them from the Hangkou Stadium in Shanghai. Another alternative is to search the Beijinger Fourm for tickets in other cities, someone is offering 4 tickets to next Tuesday’s Brazil v Argentina football showdown here.

Links and Sources
The Beijinger: Marathon, triathalon... anything we can watch for free?
The Beijinger: Olympic Tickets at Venues
The Beijinger: No Olympic Tickets? You can still watch the Cycling
Shanghaiist: Tickets still available for Olympic Games in Shanghai
Yahoo: Olympics: BOCOG admits empty seats a challenge
Guardian: Olympics: Empty seats a concern for Games
The Australian: Empty seats and deserted race routes gives Games a soulless feel
IHT: Empty seats inside venues; scalpers outside
Christian Science Monitor: How to nab ’sold out’ Olympic tickets