Beijing - Chinese Internet users are clamouring for used Olympic tickets, with demand highest for last week's China-US basketball match and other high-profile events, local media said on Wednesday. Tickets are changing hands for 300 yuan (44 dollars) for the China-US basketball game, which was watched by US President George W Bush and featured China's Yao Ming among a host of NBA stars, the Shanghai Morning Post said.
Used tickets for other popular events such as football, diving and gymnastics cost at least 50 yuan (7 dollars), while even those with less Chinese interest fetch up to 20 yuan (3 dollars), the newspaper said.
Some online vendors were asking 20,000 yuan (3,000 dollars) for a used ticket from the opening ceremony, it said.
But the price of a used ticket for Thursday's final of the men's 110 metres hurdles had dropped from 2,000 yuan to less than 100 yuan since injury forced China's Liu Xiang to withdraw from his heat.
The official Xinhua news agency said many collectors were waiting outside the stadium to buy used tickets after the China-US basketball game on August 10.
Ticket touts in Beijing continue to sell tickets before many Olympic events at several times the official price, despite a police crackdown that has led to the arrest of nearly 300 touts, including at least 37 foreigners. dpa
200720 GMT Aug 08
