The Li family are on a mission. They're so determined to get tickets for the Olympics they've been camping on the streets of Beijing with 10,000 other sports fans. (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) MR. LI, SAYING: "My family first came here before dawn this morning. We are taking turns to queue and I'm the third shift." Seven million Olympics tickets have already been sold through online applications. But this final block of 820,000 will go on sale on Friday at booths close to various Olympics venues. This queue at the main ticket office next to the Olympics stadium is for 30,000 tickets and each person can buy just two tickets each. (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) TONG LEI, SAYING: "I think it is totally worth it, because it has been the first time that the Olympic Games is held in Beijing. I want to seize this opportunity to witness history." (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) CHEN XINYUAN, SAYING: "I was planning on buying tickets for the diving inside the Water Cube. But after I came here and saw so many people queuing, I think I'll be lucky to get any tickets." With little more than two weeks to go to the start of the Olympics the organisers say the venues are ready. 24 new centres have been built specifically for the Games and 13 existing ones upgraded. There are 31 venues in Beijing alone - the Bird's Nest Stadium with its 80,000 capacity being the centrepiece. Tickets for the various events range in price considerably. You can watch the preliminary rounds of the softball competition for around four dollars but tickets for the opening ceremony cost a whopping 669 dollars each. The authorities hope to make 140 million dollars from tickets sales alone. With this level of interest they should have no problems going for gold. Sonia Legg, Reuters.
The Li family are on a mission. They're so determined to get tickets for the Olympics they've been ...
