China is taking measures to avoid counterfeits after the 7 million tickets for the Aug. 8-24 event went on sale on Sunday. Three-quarters of the tickets - priced from 30 yuan ($4) to 5,000 yuan - are for the home market and the rest overseas.

A pedestrian walks past a banner promoting the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games tickets in Beijing, 14 April 2007. The mad scramble for Beijing Olympics tickets began Sunday with organisers putting on sale more than seven million seats for the world's premier sporting event. [AFP]

High-demand sports events including the 2006 Soccer World Cup and Champions League final have been targeted by forgers.

"Fake tickets are bound to surface during every Olympic Games,'' Rong Jun, director of ticketing sales at the Beijing Organizing Committee, said at a briefing in the Chinese capital on Sunday. "We want to use the most advanced technology to stop fake tickets."

The use of so-called radio frequency identification memory chips will help organizers combat pirated tickets as well as speeding up entry into venues, Rong said.

Competition tickets will sell for between 30 yuan and 1,000 yuan, while entry to the opening and closing ceremonies will cost 150 yuan to 5,000 yuan, according to the Beijing Organizing Committee. Tickets will be available for collection a month or more before the start, organizers said.

Overseas sales will be handled by the individual country's National Olympic Committee and its ticketing agent, Rong said. About 14 percent of tickets will go to students on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan and will cost between 5 yuan and 10 yuan. Ticket sales will raise $140 million.

Personal Limits

Buyers are limited to two tickets for popular competitions such as the men's basketball finals and one ticket for the opening and closing ceremonies. Local residents will get 26,000 tickets, or 41 percent of the 60,000 on sale, for each of the opening and closing ceremonies and must submit a photo.

Chinese residents must also provide passport or identity card numbers when ordering tickets. The stored personal details will be destroyed after the Games, Rong said.

Domestic sales will take place in three stages. In each phase, Chinese residents can place orders either through the official ticketing Web site, the organizing committee's ticketing phone hotline or at designated Bank of China branches countrywide.

Tickets sold domestically will be allocated randomly in the first phase and on a "first-come-first-serve" basis thereafter. Organizers won't replace tickets that are lost, stolen or damaged. Tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies can't be transferred "indiscriminately" and holders must apply to switch them, Rong added.

Beijing may receive 800,000 visitors during the 17-day event and is spending an estimated $160 billion on public works including new roads, subways and sports stadiums for China's first Olympics.

Beijing wants to ensure fair and transparent ticketing sales, Wang Wei, the organizing committee's executive vice president, said on the same day.