The last batch of tickets for the Beijing Olympics to be sold in China, 1.38 million in all, went on sale to the public on Monday. The tickets can be purchased either from the official ticketing website or a Bank of China branch.

Six months ago, when the first Olympic tickets came available online, huge demand caused the ticketing system to crash in no time. The Beijing Olympic organizing committee then decided to allocate the rest of the tickets by lottery.

On Monday morning, the first tickets were reportedly sold successfully, but in Beijing, some customers had to queue for hours at the authorized ticket selling offices in order to get their tickets.

One year ago, the Beijing Olympic organizing committee announced that a total of about 7.2 million tickets would go on sale in China and abroad. However, a few weeks ago, the committee announced that the number had been revised to just 6.8 million tickets without giving any further explanations.