Tickets sales for the Olympic Expo Beijing 2008 will begin on Monday, June 23, Xinhua News Agency reports.

Running concurrently with the Olympic Games from August 8 to 18, the Olympic Expo - or Olympex - will showcase the century-old Olympic movement and ancient Chinese culture to the world.

This first ever Olympex in Beijing offers four categories of tickets; namely the standard, VIP, student and general with prices ranging from 30 yuan to 2008 yuan.

The exhibition will feature, among other things, the stamp collections of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and priceless artifacts of the International Olympic Committee. Special Olympic-themed stamps from the China Stamp Museum and Olympic-themed coins from the China Coin Museum will also be on display.

To purchase tickets, people can either register with the official website of Olympex or to go designated outlets. The organizing committee of Olympex will observe a "first come, first served" principle as tickets are limited. Those in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and those abroad need to make reservations online and pay before picking up their tickets from designated postal outlets in Beijing.

This event is jointly sponsored by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), the Chinese Olympic Committee, and the China Post Group.

(CRI June 24, 2008)