Scalpers sell student group tickets

• Source: Global Times
• [08:14 August 06 2010]
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By Zhang Cao

Scalpers have somehow found another loophole that is allowing them to make a quick buck from the illegal sale of Expo tickets, most recently hawking student group tickets to visitors outside the Expo Park.

Although only two designated travel agencies in the city are authorized to sell the discounted 50 yuan ($7.38) tickets to student groups, the scalpers have managed to get their hands on these, and have started selling them to visitors for as low as 90 yuan ($13.29).

The student group ticket receipts are supposed to be administered to schools only, with students having to show student IDs to claim their actual tickets once they arrive at the park, but scalpers with hundreds of the tickets available outside park gates yesterday proved that they had successfully cheated the system.

One scalper near the No.6 entrance gate by Shangnan Road yesterday told this Global Times reporter, "Don't worry, you'll get in, these are real."

The man surnamed Zhang, who said he sells at least 100 of the tickets daily, provided his cell phone number and ID card information as a guarantee that the ticket would work.

Meanwhile, Ma Yang, a police officer at the gate, said that visitors buying these tickets would likely have no problems entering the park as ticket collectors are too preoccupied with lowering the volume of visitors at entrance gates.

"They don't have time to check each ticket one by one," he told the Global Times.

But he added that visitors that do get caught will be asked to pay the difference and cooperate with police to identify the scalper who sold them the tickets.

The two designated student group ticket agencies Shanghai Yangpu Xiuyang Travel Agency and Shanghai Tourist Distribution Center yesterday said that scalpers were certainly not getting their tickets from them.