All 5,300 tickets to performances by mainland China’s Olympians due in Hong Kong next week have been sold out in around 30 minutes, as tens of thousands of residents scrambled to secure a spot.
More than 37,000 residents joined the online queue at 10am on Thursday to snatch a ticket to the badminton, gymnastics and table tennis shows by the mainland Olympic stars, making it the longest queue among all performances.
Following closely behind was the swimming and diving demonstrations, with more than 34,000 people in line.
Both queues to sports demonstration shows had a waiting time that exceeded two hours.
More than 12,000 people queued for tickets to a gala show, which will be held on August 30, incurring an estimated waiting time of 55 minutes.
All tickets were sold out within around 35 minutes, with the swimming and diving demonstration being the quickest.
The national team will visit the city from August 29 to 31.
The 5,300 tickets, priced at HK$20 (US$2,56) each, are for the gala show, which will start at 8pm on August 30, and the demonstrations by the medallists the following morning. The tickets include an undisclosed amount reserved for underprivileged residents for free.
The tickets were sold on a real-name basis, which means ticket holders are not allowed to transfer them to others and must produce proof of identity with photo identification.
The Leisure and Cultural Services Department said at 10.46am all tickets were sold and called on the audience to arrive in advance for an identification check.
Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said earlier some sessions would be broadcast on television, so the public could enjoy the shows remotely.
China won 91 medals at the Paris Olympics, 40 of them are gold. It achieved a clean sweep of gold in diving and secured two swimming gold in the men’s 4x100m relay and the men’s 100m freestyle, in which Pan Zhanle made a record-breaking victory by finishing at 46.40 seconds.
The table tennis squad clinched five gold, thanks to the wins of Ma Long in men’s singles, Chen Meng in women’s singles, both men’s and women’s team events and mixed doubles with world No 1 Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin.
China also won gold in Badminton women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
