Ticket sales for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games will be made available to domestic buyers from Monday by lottery, organizers announced on Monday.

There will be 21,000 tickets for the opening ceremony and 26,000 tickets for the closing gala, the Olympic Ticketing Center said.

Bookings will begin when the second stage of ticket sales for the Olympic Games takes place, from December 10 to December 30.

"There will be no time preference given and all applications will have the same opportunity to win the lottery," Zhu Yan, director of the ticketing center, said.

"We have decided to sell tickets for the Paralympic ceremonies at a low price to involve as many people as possible," he said.

The tickets for the opening ceremony will be priced in five categories, ranging from 80 yuan (US$10.80) to 2,600 yuan (US$351). Tickets for the closing ceremony will be in five categories, costing between 50 yuan and 600 yuan.

People can place their orders through the official ticketing website, www.tickets.beijing2008.cn, or any of the 1,000 designated outlets of the Bank of China across the country.

Each person is restricted to two tickets for each of the ceremonies.

"Similar to the ticketing policy for the Beijing Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, the tickets can be transferred only once," Zhu said.

Tickets for the Paralympic sports competitions, Zhu said, would be put on sale at a later date and would be sold at low prices.

To help promote sports among people with disabilities, the Beijing Games organizers will have "Educational Program Tickets", which will be free of charge to high-profile candidates, those with disabilities, students and those who assist people with a disability.

The Beijing Paralympic Games will be held from September 6 to 17 next year.

(China Daily December 4, 2007)