Beijing Municipal Commission of Education.

OLYMPICS BRIEFS

Ceremony Tickets on Sale

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) will start to receive applications from domestic spectators for tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Paralympic Games from December 10, BOCOG announced on December 3.

The applicants can place their orders through BOCOG's official ticketing website (www.tickets.beijing2008. cn) or any of the 1,000 designated outlets of the Bank of China across the country. Inquiries can be made to BOCOG's ticketing call center (86-10-952008).

According to the ticketing plan, there will be 21,000 tickets for the opening ceremony and 26,000 tickets for the closing ceremony available. Booking will end on December 30.

No time preference will be given to any application and all applicants will enjoy the same opportunity to get tickets. BOCOG will notify all the applicants of the results.

The tickets for the opening ceremony will be priced in five categories, ranging from 80 yuan to 2,600 yuan; and closing ceremony tickets will be priced from 50 yuan to 600 yuan. Each applicant can place only one application using valid personal ID. There is a purchase limit of two sessions per application and two tickets per session.

For Paralympic tickets, BOCOG will implement a low price policy and "Educational Program Tickets" policy. The latter will be free of charge and given to representatives of persons with a disability, young students and assistants to persons with a disability.

Official Replaced, Ticket Sales Restarted

In the wake of November's suspension of the second phase of Olympic ticket sales on the debut day after an unexpected scramble for tickets crashed booking systems, BOCOG has appointed a new head of ticketing and announced that the second phase of ticket sales will be reopened on December 10.

At a BOCOG press conference on November 30, Zhu Yan, who previously worked for the Beijing Municipal Government, was introduced as the replacement for Rong Jun, as director of the Olympic Ticketing Center.

Zhu said between December 10 and 30, the Chinese mainland public can submit applications through the official ticketing website (www.ticket.beijing2008.cn) or through the1,000 Bank of China outlets designated by BOCOG.

He added that people will be restricted to eight tickets each instead of the previous 50 when ticket sales resume. "The new policy will give more people a chance to watch the games, and will prevent ticket scalpers from making profits," noted Zhu.

He said the number of tickets available for the second phase will be no fewer than 1.8 million. The first batch of 1.6 million tickets were sold earlier this year also by lottery.

Champion Bouquets

Award ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics next year will consume a total of over 7,000 bouquets, all of which will be supplied by a newly opened flower center in the southern part of the nation's capital.

The new center, covering an area of 2,600 square meters, will be in charge of the production, packaging and delivery of bouquets for medalists. The center also has a research and development department to study technology used for keeping bouquets fresh during transportation.

"The varieties of flowers used to make the bouquets have been decided. They will conform to international etiquette and bear Chinese characters," said Zhao Dongming, Director of the BOCOG Cultural Activities Department.

The center has purchased six flower delivery vehicles equipped with air conditioners to supply bouquets for the Olympic test events. During next year's games, the number of vehicles is expected to be increased to nearly 30.