When the organizers did all their best to keep the crowds in order, the ticket buyers themselves also volunteered to make it easier to wait.
Everybody got a number according to his or her order in the line. He or she could come back to his or her positions in the line if taking pee or bring back food and water from outside.
"There was an interesting thing. A boy came to me on Thursday. He said he brought lunch to his father, but he couldn't find him. I had to use the loudspeaker to find out his father throughout the thousands of people," Li said in laugh.
Eight windows opened at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, which were expanded to 21 in the afternoon. Volunteers put several tables between windows to sell tickets. The money were put into paper boxes as there were not enough cashboxes.
"The tickets of the baseball competitions were sold in the other end of the stadium. As all the people waiting there wanted to buy basketball tickets, the people who wanted baseball tickets didn't need to wait in line."
A long table were put behind the windows with all the tickets being piled up on the table. Two volunteers stood behind each window to bring the tickets to the windows when the cash receivers shouted out the tickets they wanted.
"We must make sure that the people in the front lines could get the tickets they wanted after they waited there for two days. We also made some posters in front of the windows to show how many tickets were left for each match. I sat in a van to give the updated information of the tickets through a loudspeaker. All the tickets were sold out before 8:00 p.m. on Friday," Li said.
"We did know the basketball tickets were one of the hottest ones at the Games. But we didn't expect such a spectacular scene. That was one of the most unforgettable moments in my life. I think it was the most impressive ticket-selling scene in the history of the Olympics," Li added.
(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2008)