Scalpers cash in on trial run, opening days
- Source: Global Times
- [11:25 April 26 2010]
- Comments
Police stand at the entrance of the Expo park to help check tickets Sunday during the fifth test-run before the last trial operations of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai today. Photo: CFP
By Shen Weihuang
With less than a week to go before the ribbon is cut for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, scalpers are selling tickets to the sixth and final trial operations running today, taking advantage of a rare opportunity.
Passes to the last test-run, which is expected to come to a close by midnight, were originally given to the public for free by organizers, but scalpers who got a hold of these handouts were asking visitors for up to 400 yuan ($59) for them as of late Sunday.
Lingering around the entrances of the Expo site as well as at nearby Line 7 and 8 subway stations, scalpers are further jumping on the situation by pushing visitors to buy the sold out designated one-day tickets, especially those for the May 1 to 3 opening period.
The sold out passes that were originally priced at 200 yuan ($29) were being sold Sunday by scalpers for a bargain-low of 700 yuan ($102) when this Global Times reporter approached them under the guise of a potential buyer.
"But if we have any tickets left in the next couple of days, these prices will go up as the Expo draws even closer," the scalper told the Global Times Sunday.
While Expo officials would not disclose the number of designated one-day tickets that have been sold out - capped in an effort to control swelling crowds during peak periods - they said there is no sure way of preventing scalpers from illegally selling the passes, but cautioned visitors against buying them.
"Visitors should not make deals with the scalpers for tickets because they could end up paying for fake tickets that will not enable them to get into the park," an Expo official who declined to disclose his identity told the Global Times Sunday.
Since the pre-sale round of tickets that first opened to visitors last March and closes on Friday, over 200 million tickets - or roughly 95 percent of the 24 million officials were hoping to sell before the show starts, including both regular and designated one-day tickets as well as three-day passes - have been already sold.
Though visitors will no longer be able to purchase officially issued designated one-day tickets, once the gates open this weekend they can still buy whatever remains of the regular one-day tickets for 160 yuan ($23), 10 yuan ($1.50) more than the pre-sale price.
