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Jess Ma

All 5,300 tickets to demonstrations and a gala show involving mainland Chinese Olympians set to visit Hong Kong next week sold out within 35 minutes on Thursday, as tens of thousands of residents scrambled to secure spots.
More than 37,000 people joined the online queue at 10am in a bid to get tickets to badminton, gymnastics and table tennis demonstrations by the Olympic stars.
The queue for the swimming and diving demonstrations was not much smaller, with more than 34,000 people waiting online.
Both queues had waiting times that exceeded two hours.
More than 12,000 people queued for tickets to the gala show, incurring an estimated waiting time of 55 minutes.
All tickets were snapped up within about 35 minutes, with the swimming and diving demonstration sold out first.
Authorities have not revealed which athletes will join the delegation visiting the city from August 29 to 31.
Around 5,300 tickets, priced at HK$20 (US$2.60) each, were available for the August 30 gala show, which starts at 8pm, and demonstrations the following morning. An undisclosed number of the tickets will be reserved for needy residents at no cost.
The tickets were sold on a real-name basis, which means holders cannot transfer them to others and must produce proof of identity with photo identification.

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department said at 10.46am that all tickets had been sold. It called on the audience to arrive in advance for an identification check.
Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said earlier that some sessions would be broadcast on television, so the public could enjoy the shows.
Some internet users expressed disappointment at being unable to secure spots at the events because of the overwhelming demand.
“I could not get a ticket at all. When I refreshed the page for the diving [demonstrations] at 9.59am, there were already 1,600 people,” a user named Jacky Chan wrote in a comment under a promotional post on Facebook by the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China.
“Five minutes later, I was timed out of the page, and then there were over 20,000 people when I rejoined the queue.”
Others said the tickets should only have been available for Hong Kong identity card holders.
According to the Urbtix ticketing platform, non-residents could buy tickets as long as they produced a valid travel document, such as a passport or an exit-entry permit for the city and Macau, for identity verification.
A search on popular online marketplace Carousell produced eight results of users offering to buy tickets to the gala show or the demonstrations for between HK$500 and HK$1,500.
China won 91 medals at the Paris Olympics, including 40 golds. It took all the gold medals in diving and secured two in swimming, in the men’s 4x100m relay and the men’s 100m freestyle, in which Pan Zhanle broke the world record with a time of 46.40 seconds.
The table tennis squad clinched five golds, thanks to the wins of Ma Long in the men’s singles, Chen Meng in the women’s singles, the men’s and women’s team events and the mixed doubles with world No 1 Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin.
China also won two gold medals in badminton, in the women’s doubles and the mixed doubles.


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More than 37,000 people join online queue at 10am for a ticket to badminton, gymnastics and table tennis demonstrations


More than 37,000 people join online queue at 10am for a ticket to badminton, gymnastics and table tennis demonstrations.


5,300 tickets for Hong Kong shows by China’s Olympic stars sell out in 35 minutes

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}More than 37,000 people join online queue at 10am for a ticket to badminton, gymnastics and table tennis demonstrations

More than 37,000 people join online queue at 10am for a ticket to badminton, gymnastics and table tennis demonstrations