Phase Four Olympics ticket sales to start

BOCOG announced on July 22 the policy concerning the phase four sales of Olympic tickets to the domestic public. Beginning July 25, the remaining 820,000 Olympic tickets will be sold at venue ticket booths from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily.

Unlike the first three phases, the fourth phase of ticket sales is open to the individuals rather than groups, and the public can line up to buy tickets at ticket booths of the Olympic venues and pay with cash or a Visa card.

In order to give more people a chance to buy tickets, each person is allowed to buy at most two tickets for one session at once.

According to Zhu Yan, director of the BOCOG Ticketing Center, only tickets for competitions taking place locally will be available for purchase. Of the 820,000 remaining tickets, 250,000 are for competitions in the Beijing area. Venues in the co-host cities -- Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao -- will only sell tickets for Football matches to be held in each respective city.

Olympic tickets distributed to Olympic Education Schools

With the Beijing Olympic Games one month away, BOCOG and the Ministry of Education distributed Olympic tickets allotted for schools involved in the Olympic education program nationwide on Tuesday.

Following the practice of previous Olympics, BOCOG is offering elementary and secondary schools under the program up to one million tickets, or 14 percent of the total ticket pool, at low prices of five yuan to ten yuan per ticket. Opening and closing ceremony tickets are not included in the special ticketing program.

To ensure sound arrangement for students' accommodations and transportation, ten high schools in Beijing have been designated as hosts to offer affordable services.

BOCOG and the Education Ministry have also issued a special invitation to 65 teachers and students from earthquake-hit areas in Sichuan Province to attend the Olympics as a part of the program.