The 500 day countdown for the Beijing Olympics is fast approaching. As I write this post there are 506 days to go until the opening ceremony is scheduled to start. The action kicks off at 8.08 pm on August 8, 2008. Something lucky about 8 in the Chinese culture.

The other day I started searching through my frequent flyers membership site for flights to Beijing sometime in August 2008. It looks as though I will have to wait until August 2007 for the flights to be available. I have been wondering if it will be possible to find a flight going to Beijing that will allow people to book using frequent flyer points. As an alternative I have been thinking about trying to get to Hong Kong by airplane and then taking a train from Hong Kong to Beijing. I think this would be quite an adventure.

I will be doing some research into cheap flights to Beijing for the Olympics in upcoming months. I think the best opportunity to get a good deal will be to fly into cities other than Beijing and then do some sightseeing while travelling by train into the capital.

Recently I noticed on the Beijing 2008 website they have opened registration to buy tickets for the Olympics. The http://www.tickets.beijing2008.cn/ website is only allowing Chinese nationals or Foreign Residents to register for tickets. The cost for opening ceremony tickets ranges from 200 to 5000 RMB which is roughly 25 to 625 USD. A bargain if you ask me. The only problem is that this price is for the locals. I am sure prices will be a lot higher for the visiting sports fans from western countries.

If you are interested in going to the Beijing Olympics and come from the countries listed below head over to the www.cosport.com website. They are the official ticket agent for Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, New Zealand, Slovak Republic and USA. Once you are on that website you can register an interest for the tickets you would like to purchase. After that you register and then wait to be contacted by the Cosport staff.

I have registered my tickets and look forward to seeing what I can get from my selections. I was lucky enough to attend the Sydney Olympics and remember fondly the great feeling you got just walking the streets during the festive occasion. I have never felt so excited when walking the streets of a major city. The Olympic buzz was alive and well back in 2000.

I am counting the days until the Beijing Olympics and can’t wait to visit the city once again.