Tickets to the Beijing Olympics went on sale in China on a first-come, first-served basis on Tuesday, but overwhelming demand crashed the computer ticketing system. More than eight hours after ticket sales began, the online ticketing site had a note saying the system was busy and to check back later. The telephone ticket hot line rang busy, as it had all day."The speed of the ticketing system is relatively slow," the Beijing Olympics organizing committee (BOCOG) said in an announcement on its Web site.
"It is temporarily unavailable ... those who want to buy tickets through Bank of China branches or the telephone hot line need to try again later."
The announcement did not mention the online ticketing site. However, a ticketing department official said in a statement last week that a main computer system processed all transactions.
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