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Beijing has announced  ticket prices for the 2008 Olympic Games that are significantly lower than those for recent Games.

Tickets  for sports events will range from 30 to 1,000 yuan, while  admission to the opening ceremony will range from 200 to 5,000 yuan and tickets for the closing ceremony 150 to 3,000 yuan, the Beijing Organising Committee  (Bocog) announced yesterday.

It said 58 per cent of the 7 million tickets to be issued would cost 100 yuan or less.

At the Athens Olympics two years ago, 68 per cent of tickets on sale cost Euro30 (around 300 yuan) or less.  Tickets for events at  Athens Games cost  Euro10 to Euro300,  while admission to the ceremonies ranged from Euro50 to Euro950.  Ticket prices in Athens were, on average, 34 per cent cheaper than those for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

'China is a developing country, and the income of the general public is lower than that of Sydney and Athens,' Bocog said,  explaining why tickets to events in Beijing would cost only about 30 per cent of those in Athens.

The pricing policy was guided by a 'commitment to ensuring the greatest number of people would be able to experience the Olympic values and spirit', Bocog said.

The committee also announced it would offer students discounted tickets. Fourteen per cent of all tickets would be reserved for students, with the qualifying events costing only 5 yuan and the finals 10 yuan.

'Are you sure that's yuan instead of euros?' asked an overjoyed primary school child in Tianjin .

Bocog did not say how much tickets for the equestrian events in Hong Kong would cost. Tickets for the 2008 Olympics will go on sale in the first half of next year, with at least 50 per cent  reserved for the domestic market and the rest going to foreign spectators and international sports organisations.  Bocog said it would unveil details of ticket sales early next year.

Media professional Ms Xue, who works at a joint-venture magazine in Beijing, said a top-tier opening ceremony ticket costing 5,000 yuan was reasonable. 'A VIP ticket for some crappy pop singer will cost up to 6,000 yuan,' she said.

Mr Hou, a 32-year-old employee at a state-owned research company in Beijing,  said a low-end opening ceremony ticket at 200 yuan was a bargain.

But he was not sure it would be  easy to  buy. 'I assume you probably need some guanxi (connections) to get one,' he said.

TICKET PRICES

OPENING CEREMONY

200 to 5,000 yuan

CLOSING CEREMONY

150 to 3,000 yuan

SPORT EVENTS

Preliminaries: 30 to 300 yuan

Finals: 60 to 1,000 yuan

STUDENT TICKETS

Preliminaries: 5 yuan

Finals: 10 yuan



Tickets for 2008 Beijing Olympics  to cost just 30pc of Athens Games