tez88

Thanks for the advice - highly recommend. ^^
We put feelers out to get a 3 bed appt for our group of 7 a couple of months ago - willing to pay 20-30kRMB a week but got no takers. PC points idea was out of the box and greatly appreciated.

Other experiences from Down Under.
- Plenty of flight award availability to HKG or SHA 300+ days out. Train required to Beijing.
- we hit approx 20% tickets via Co-Sport (finals only applied for) which was on par with SYD olympics. We have some tickets which we might have to give up due to work schedule - I have to build my thread count for CC or PM.

crnk

Yes, Cosport prices are steep. The only positive thing is that you can purchase premium events (and ceremonies) as part of the packages they offer. If you wanted tickets at reasonable/face value prices (+$50 shipping and fees), they were available last fall during the presale/lottery. Open ticket sales happened in late November--I checked the day after they went on sale and early prelims (mostly women's, few men's) were the only available events.

As for hotel and airfare, I'm finding that the airfare is remaining stable at this point, so I haven't purchased (also trying to finalize where my travel companion will be flying from and pairing the reservations). I heard hotel prices are very high and hard to get, but I haven't tried in that realm yet. More information from people who have tried is available on the main thread in this forum.

Dambus

Just discovered this great thread!

We are considering popping over to Beijing during the Olymypics specifically to take in a couple of swimming events at the NAC.

Any ideas how hard/easy it will be to pick up tickets? e.g. Is there big local demand for the swimming events?

Thanks!

-- Dambus

Jerry_Maguire

JieJie, any news on international ticket allocations? I'm in the category that has flights (well into Hong Kong pre-Games, out of Beijing after) and accommodation (an apartment by the Olympic Center) but no tickets...

dannyyu

Was told by cosport that they should have more packages available middle of next week.

Wanted the Minzu package which had the Men's basketball finals.... Hope those tickets become available again.

Josanna

I'm heading to the Olympics this summer. Cannot wait! I wasn't able to snag Opening Ceremony tickets, but did get about 15 events over the last 9 days of the Olympics. I was able to book a hotel this week for $750 a night, but I was insistent on staying at my usual brand so I'd at least have hope for an upgrade. I'm flying into Shanghai for a few days, then traveling to Beijing on a local carrier. I haven't booked air yet - hope to this week. It's steep - very steep! Anyone with any tips is appreciated.

I'd also be interested if anyone has any tickets to gymnastics or swimming in the last week of the games.

Can't wait for Beijing!!:-:

dannyyu

No Changes the last 2 weeks.

Will check cosport again in March to see how it shakes out then.

jiejie

Jerry, I've been travelling out of China and so my ear is not planted to the ground right now. I'm not back in Beijing to massage contacts and snitches until mid-March. So, I'm also watching Cosport and there have been no more individual tickets put out there yet. The Chinese public Phase 2 payment deadline is looming in a few days, and I suspect that after that passes, BOCOG will release more tickets to the international community.

However, I think the prospect of seeing many (or any) more tickets to premier events like swimming, diving, gymnastics, etc. is fairly slim. Expect anything like that to go quickly, and that most of the additional tickets will be in less popular sports. I advise checking Cosport regularly (maybe even daily) to see status. On their home page, they also have an email notification request form, which can't hurt but I wouldn't depend only on Cosport promptness in lieu of your own proactive checking.

For Josanna: Artistic Gymnastics ends on August 19th and Swimming on the 17th (except for the 10 km long distance events on the 20th-21st), so you are limited in your opportunities to see these events anyway if you are coming over the last 9 days. Tickets for these will be very tough to get except on the secondary market. If you decide go that route, be very careful who you deal with. As for transportation from Shanghai onward, consider train or flight to a nearby city such as Tianjin and get transportation by car from Tianjin airport to Beijing, about 1.5 hours.

moondog

While I predict the train situation will be tight, TSN is a good option. I have been told that there will be extensive bus service from the airport directly to Guomao. The trip can be as fast as one hour (which isn't bad, considering PEK to Guomao takes 30 mins).

iahphx

FWIW, I had several friends in China try to get me some additional tickets through the recent China-resident-only auction. They bid for me for the "top tier" events -- swimming, gymnastics, diving, track & field, etc.

Not sure whether my luck was just rotten, but I just found out we won nothing.

I still have my cosport tickets from the US lottery, and I am still optimistic I'll pick up more tickets along the way. The "good thing" is that it's not easy, which, of course, scares most people away.

Josanna

For Josanna: Artistic Gymnastics ends on August 19th and Swimming on the 17th (except for the 10 km long distance events on the 20th-21st), so you are limited in your opportunities to see these events anyway if you are coming over the last 9 days. Tickets for these will be very tough to get except on the secondary market. If you decide go that route, be very careful who you deal with. As for transportation from Shanghai onward, consider train or flight to a nearby city such as Tianjin and get transportation by car from Tianjin airport to Beijing, about 1.5 hours.[/QUOTE]


THank you so much for the advice. We were hashing out our plans and I think we're going to skip China on the front end of the trip all together since we didn't score many tickets on the front end of the games and go to Phuket on the beach or something. Maybe we will fly into Tianjin from where we're coming from and drive. We looked at that city, and glad to know driving is an option from there. Anyone know about children and car seats? I will have a 9 month old with me.

Thanks.

iahphx

Both the "buzz" and the published articles strongly suggest very poor foreign turnout for the Olympics. Peter N-H (who sometimes posts here) has a popular China travel subscription list and not one of his readers "confessed" that they planned to attend! Today's NYTimes travel section has another article about how impossible it is to get tickets, how expensive hotels are, etc.

As more and more people get scared off, I'm more convinced it will turn out to be very easy to attend. But we'll see.

canuck_in_pa

I don't know about car seats but consider yourself lucky if a car has working seatbelts... Things are slowly starting to change though. My last trip, seatbelt usage by locals was up to maybe 25% for front-seat occupants, up from 0 before. And they don't look at you funny anymore when you ask about them.

Josanna

Wow Cannuck. I've traveled a lot, but until you have a kiddie, I guess I didn't even notice how other countries handle car seats, etc. I am going to have to do more research on that. Thanks.

jkof

Hi. We live in Shanghai and had found it hard to pre-arrange car seats. If your 9-month old will fit in a baby seat - - I forget when they grow into the toddler seat - - I recommend bringing one with you. Not so hard to check through as luggage. In Shanghai the hire cars all have working seatbelts and the drivers are more than happy to try to engineer the car seat into position. Taxis are more random. Even though taxis have to have seat belts now, many are tucked behind very nice, clean, tightly fitting seat covers. Not so safe. I don't know the scene in Beijing but I wouldn't assume taxis will work easily wtih car seats. A Beijinger will know more than me.