Grey market tickets to Expo for June go cheap

• Source: Global Times
• [10:53 June 29 2010]
• Comments

Professional ticket scalpers have also been dropping their prices as the deadline looms.

"June tickets are selling for 100 yuan ($14.72) each now, far cheaper than the previous price, and you can get a discount if you buy more than 10 tickets at a time," a poster on Shanghai Baixing surnamed Liang told a Global Times reporter who posed as a potential buyer.

Liang revealed that he had got the tickets from neighborhood committees that are responsible for distributing the tickets, and often have a surplus. He also offered to accept payment after the tickets had been successfully used, in order to dispel suspicion about their authenticity.

According to a member of staff at the Expo ticket hot line, there is no way for tickets that expire in June to be exchanged.

"There is no official policy allowing residents to exchange tickets that are expiring for new ones, and there will be no such policy in the future," she told the Global Times.

"We were too busy and did not have the time to use the ticket this month, so we are sorry to say that we have to let it go to waste," Zhan Yan, a local holder of a June ticket, said Monday.

Eligibility for free tickets depends on hukou (household registration) and residency status. The tickets have a validity of one month, and their distribution has been staggered according to district, in order to control the number of visitors to the Expo Park. There are another two batches scheduled for distribution, one in July and one in August.