Embarrassed organisers of the 2008 Beijing Olympics suspended domestic ticket sales yesterday following Tuesday's chaotic computer-booking meltdown.
Ticketing chief Rong Jun read out a humble letter of apology to the millions of mainlanders left angered and disappointed after a frenzied ordering spree collapsed the multimillion-yuan hi-tech system within minutes of its debut.
'We couldn't cope with the country's Olympic enthusiasm. We underestimated the demand on the ticketing system, our preparations were flawed and our emergency plan was inadequate,' Mr Rong admitted after millions attempted to grab the 1.8 million tickets on sale in the second booking phase.
'We have temporarily halted sales to review the technical plan and will announce the new ticket information on November 5.'
He said the problem was not believed to be technical but simply a gross underestimation of demand, which proved well beyond the system's capacity of handling 1 million hits and processing 150,000 ticket sales an hour.
Mr Rong called a crisis meeting with the ticketing agent Gehua Ticketmaster - a joint venture with the world's largest booking agent, US-based IAC/InterActive Corp's Ticketmaster - late on Tuesday.
