Beijing is living up to its past reputation of being a walled city. The hardest part of the Olympic experience so far has been getting in. And unsurprisingly Olympic tickets have become Beijing’s hottest commodity these days. Beauty parlours and Internet fora are bustling in equal degree with Olympic ticket trading. Subway stations near the Olympic venues and famous sightseeing spots all sport a fair number of ticket scalpers seeking to make a hit.

“We thought the hardest part would be getting our visas,” says Australian Catherine Mathewson, “but once we had them we realised the real problem was finding tickets”. No tickets were available back home and since their arrival in Beijing, Mathewson and her husband have been touring the spots pinpointed by friends in search of tickets for the athletics. But the prices — 3,000 yuan (US dollar 440) a piece — were out of their reach.

With all the demand on display virtually everywhere in the city it has been a surprise to see the empty rows at some events. For organisers who had claimed that all 6.8 million tickets to the Beijing games had sold out, the scenes have been an embarrassment. Wang Wei, vice president of Beijing Organising Committee, sounded apologetic when he stated the obvious.

“We are concerned about the fact we do not have full stadia,” he told reporters last week and blamed the combination of heat, humidity and torrential rain in the first days for the no show. But he admitted too that a big portion of reserved seats for the IOC family members and corporate sponsors have remained unfilled.

Security restrictions imposed by the Chinese governmental after the pro-Tibetan riots in March have had a role in spoiling the Olympic party too. Swedish family Gustavsson had bought their Olympic tickets well ahead of time but then they were refused entry into the country. “We were supposed to lodge them,” says Swedish expat Karen,” but they couldn’t get their visas”.

Even the United Nations’ representative to the Beijing games has raised his voice in diplomatic reproach to the ticket sales arrangements. The half-filled halls are “very disappointing” for everybody, Wilfred Lemke, special adviser to the UN secretary general on sport for development and peace, said. “When people all over the world see that there are no people in the hall, they might think China is not interested in the games, but that is a completely wrong point of view.”