Ticket Fiasco Explained (Sort of)

Today the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) held a press conference to talk about the ticket fiasco that happened yesterday.

Rong Jun, director of the Olympic Ticketing Center first read a statement that was very similar to what was published in the media today. He said in the first hour the system was inundated with 8 million hits online, 3.8 million phone calls and numerous people lined up at Bank of China branches.

He went on to say that they didn't expect such "over-enthusiastic" people anxious to get Olympics tickets and then apologized, saying they would correct the problem and provide a better service for their "distinguished" customers. He even got up in front of the media and bowed.

Then the foreign journalists went on the offensive. The Wall Street Journal asked to explain the reason behind the suspension of ticket sales last night. Rong said it was because the database processing system was not able to process so many requests at once which led to the system crashing.

He admitted they were expecting 1 million hits per hour, but did not point the finger at either the ticketing center or the ticketmaster company that is helping BOCOG set up the ticketing system.

Reuters asked since the lottery system worked well the first time, would the Olympic Ticketing Center consider doing this again. Rong replied they were only following the example of other Olympic host cities who sold tickets in three phases, first with a lottery and then the other two on a first-come-first-served basis.

The director would not disclose exactly what the new ticketing plan would be, but that they would take into consideration "people's feedback and criticism" and increase the database processing capacity. Neither would he reveal by how much the processing capacity would be increased. And no it wasn't a problem with the server or bandwidth.

He would only say that the plan to resume the second batch of ticket sales would be announced November 5.

While it's good to see BOCOG bravely addressing the media on this fiasco, thinking only 1 million people would go online at once is very naive.

Behind the scenes someone's head is probably rolling at this moment...

Olympics Tickets Round 2

Today was two of getting Olympics tickets.

The first session was in late June. You had to fill out a ticket request form online or paper, submit it and then hope that you would get something.

People were supposed to pay up by mid September, but a newspaper article said there was an unusually high number of people who didn't purchase the tickets either by Visa or cash at the Bank of China. As a result the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) decided to be lenient and give people until sometime in October to pay up.

Those tickets that still weren't purchased would be put back into a pool for people to snap up in the second round, which was today.

And the only way to get them was to go online, call the ticket office, or go to a designated Bank of China branch and wait in line. First come, first served.

But, as I predicted, the system crashed soon after 9am when the sale started.

All of us in the office were constantly refreshing our computer screens hoping to get into the system. I started after lunch and then restarted after 4pm when I managed to get logged in. But then when I requested tickets, the system took forever to process. It finally told me that the ones I chose were not available. I tried again, choosing different price ranges or different events. Again the same message. Thinking three's a charm, I made another attempt, but it said my choices weren't available.

The online ticketing system should be able to tell you which ones are "taken" so you can try and get something else. I say "taken" because they will only be snapped up after the person pays up in two days' time.

BOCOG probably did this after a headache trying to decide who got which tickets in the request form. But it's no good when you want to sell tickets online and your system crashes. Think about it -- the most populous nation in the world and millions of them are trying to get tickets to the biggest event their country has ever seen.

This is a good experience for BOCOG to get their logistics up and running properly. They probably don't want their system to crash when the real event happens.

Close Encounters in the Park

I met up with a friend who was staying at the Grand View Garden Hotel in the southwest side of the city. It's known as the place where the Dream of the Red Chamber television series was shot.

It's tucked inside a neighbourhood complete with a park next to it. And before the sun went down I did a little exploration of it.

Overall the upkeep is quite good, and clean. In the summer it's probably bustling with people, but yesterday the weather turned sharply colder and not many wandered in. Those who did were bundled up to protect themselves from the chilly wind.

There's a beautiful pond in the middle with pavilions and walkways around it. There's also a small rose garden with roses still blooming at the end of October. Leaves were turning yellow and a few orange, either clinging onto the branches or fallen to the ground.

While it's a nice place to have a stroll, it was kind of disconcerting to see people trying to make a living inside the park. Near the entrance was a shoddy stage where a very young girl who probably didn't make the cut in an acrobatics troupe was doing her own little show of contortions. It was very sad to see her doing this act in the cold and she didn't seem like she enjoyed performing either.

At another end of the park, a young woman asked me if I wanted to dress up in imperial-style robes for a picture. She obviously didn't have much business today. There was also a marriage procession -- men carrying a chair with a woman in it -- complete with Chinese musicians for fun.

I didn't wander through every inch of the park since it was getting cold and decided to make my way out. But before I reached the exit, an orange striped cat made a beeline for me and circled me. He meowed and I crouched down and petted him. He continued circling me and was eager for a good scratch behind his ears.

I did this for several minutes and some passersby remarked how friendly he was with humans. He's probably the resident cat in the park and he does do some good PR.

The Posh, the Dosh and the Ugly

Last night Hong Kong upscale department store Lane Crawford held a bash to celebrate the grand opening of its Beijing location.

Situated in the financial district, it's nestled in between banking buildings and five-star hotels like the Westin and Inter-Continental.

From the Fuxingmen subway station, it took us a good 15 minutes to get there by foot. I guess this Seasons Place mall is not expecting plebeians to come here and gawk at the designer stores and prices.

But back to the party...

The entrance was lined with tall good-looking men in black suits who just stood out there in the cold next to tall mirrored pillars.

The only way to get in was to have an invite and then get a special stamp on your hand that could only be seen under a special light.

From then onwards Moet and Chandon flowed freely, canapes floated around and chocolates devoured.

Lane Crawford's interior looks very swank, with marble floors, creative spaces and light fixtures. The room with jewelry cases was dimly lit with a wall back lit and in front were black pieces of wood stacked together that looked like black cork. Another room selling funky sneakers had a moving track from the ceiling displaying both shoes and clothes. You had to look up to see the whole selection and a bench was nearby so didn't have to strain your neck.

And yes - everything in that store was expensive. I don't think I looked at anything less than 2,000 RMB (US$267). The store had everything from Paul Smith suits to Armani, custom-ordered Pumas, Pucci, and Stella McCartney.

There were bottles of Champagne on each floor -- make that cases of the bubbly, along with a makeshift cocktail bar, and DJ booth.

But probably most interesting was the people watching. There were many Europeans there, mostly French and Italian, along with well-heeled Chinese.

I wish the Fashion Police were there as they would have been horrified by the outfits the women wore. Many of the women seemed like they were competing to see who could bare the most skin or wear the highest heels. They wore sleeveless dresses as if they were going to a cocktail party, not a store opening. Overall the men were in suits, but one Chinese man was in a white sleeveless muscle shirt complete with his belly-button sticking out.

But probably the worst offender was a young Caucasian woman in a dark suit with high heels, straight chin-length hair that had a mishap with the scissors. The worst part was that under her suit she wore a grey top that barely covered her tiny breasts and made her look pregnant. She was a potential wardrobe malfunction waiting to happen.

Suiting Up

All week my coworker was anxiously wondering how his jacket and shirt were doing. He was particularly concerned because the tailor didn't call all week.

But this afternoon we headed back for his fitting.

And it looked good, the charcoal grey jacket and the pink shirt was a subtle complement. The jacket can be buttoned up, left open or buttoned part way. It even looks good with jeans. He was very pleased. We asked the tailor to take in the jacket a bit for a more tapered look.

Then we left and he told us to pick up the shirt and jacket on Friday or next Saturday. Again he said he wouldn't call. Just come, he said. We left excited and satisfied.

But when we were in another store, my colleague realized the tailor didn't do anything to the shirt. So we went back and got that more form fitting too and shorter so that he could wear the shirt out instead of tucked in.

The tailor probably thought we were being too fussy, but then he also knows, the customer is always right.

"Mei wenti", "no problem" was always his answer.

Music to my colleague's ears.

Let the Pre-Olympic Bashes Begin

Today there are 286 more days to go to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

And a group of kids got into the spirits of things today.

The International School of Beijing (ISB) held an "International Olympic Day" to kick off a year of events and curriculum around the international sporting event.

The school is in Shunyi District, near the airport and is a giant compound complete with tour buses to ferry the kids to and from school, security guards everywhere and a giant stadium.

Tom Hawkins, head of the school explained that ISB has 1,850 students from 50 nationalities from over three years of age to 18. So in order to celebrate its diversity, the institution holds an international day each year.

"But with the Olympics next year, we thought we'd combine the two and make it an International Olympic Day," he said proudly.

Most schools in Beijing start around late August, but because of the Olympics, they won't start the school year until after the Games are over. Hawkins added that the US Olympic Volleyball Team will use the school's facilities to train and that some students will be translators at the Games.

Today's event was to kick off a year of Olympic-themed studies in many disciplines. For example, in visual arts, one of the designers of the torch talked to students about how they came up with the design and the cultural significance behind it; in PE classes they would try some of the sports events; and they would also learn the history of the Olympics.

But today's "mock" opening ceremonies was quite impressive. Held in the giant stadium complete with a track and semi-covered stands, the students were dressed in white, black, red, green, blue and yellow T-shirts to make the Olympic flag on the field. It would have looked better from an aerial view. Hawkins joked earlier they should have had helicopters to take a better shot.

They marched to the Olympic theme and even had three students read out the Olympic oath in English, French and Putonghua.

Then some participated in a dragon and lion dance, running around in circles or greeting the audience. We saw them rehearse this twice so I'm sure they were wiped out by the time they had to actually do it in front of their parents.

Even more impressive was the traditional release of doves, except the school released probably a thousand pigeons instead.

Not only that, the school designed and made its own torch and cauldron. And one of the parents is two-time Olympic gold medal diver Gao Min. She was invited to light the cauldron after a torch relay was run around the track.

In the evening they were planning a potluck dinner and even fireworks.

It's pretty amazing to see a school put on such a lavish event. But then again everyone else is doing it, so why not?

Making Old New Again

In Hou Hai, there are many hutongs, or old Chinese houses that are falling apart and some being demolished.

And what's taking their place? New ones.

As we walked around the Back Lakes, we saw this construction site in full swing. Construction workers use the cheap but durable plastic material as makeshift aprons as they cut and fashion cement bricks into the right size and shape.

While we're pleased to see the theme of traditional Chinese architecture continue in this old area of Beijing, it's disconcerting to see them manufacture the past.