Chinese are ignoring warnings against trying to cash in on the huge demand for Beijing Olympic tickets and seats for the opening ceremony are on sale on the Internet for up to 150,000 yuan ($20,120).

Beijing organisers said last month tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies could be transferred once but "any resale of Olympic tickets for profit... is illegal.

"People who engage in criminal activity will be subject to firm punishment according to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China," read a statement on the official Games' website.

The message does not seem to have gotten through. One Shanxi resident, who was allocated a top priced ticket for the opening ceremony in the first round of sales, has decided to sell it via Internet auction at a fixed price 30 times the 5,000 yuan face value.

"(The ideal price would be) the higher the better," the person, who preferred not to be identified, told Reuters via Instant Messaging.

"If my living conditions were better, I would want to see the event myself. But I'd rather sell it to the rich people. How can our poor, ordinary people like us afford the tickets? It was not easy to get such a ticket so I'm hoping to sell it to buy a new home."

Film directors Zhang Yimou and Steven Spielberg are involved in producing what is likely to be a spectacular ceremony to open the Games on Aug. 8 next year and subscribers were limited to one ticket each.

A woman from Hubei, who also wanted to remain anonymous, has put her 5,000 yuan ticket for the ceremony on the auction site www.taobao.com with a starting price of 60,000 yuan. By mid-afternoon yesterday, there had been no bids.

Most Chinese entertainment events attract a throng of touts or scalpers, known locally as "yellow bulls", trying to sell on tickets.

The second round of ticket sales was suspended on Tuesday after the millions of Chinese trying to secure their place at the world's biggest sporting event swamped the ticketing system, causing it to crash.

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