Thousands of people queued outside Bank of China branches in heavy rain last night for commemorative Olympics banknotes that would not go on sale for another 48 hours.
Collectors, students, housewives, retired workers and people from the mainland began waiting around 8am outside the six BOC branches in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories in hopes of being among the first to purchase the banknotes. Some said they had been paid thousands of dollars to stand in the two-day queues.
Neither the hot weather nor heavy rain, which led to the amber rainstorm warning being raised at 11.25pm, troubled queuers, who had umbrellas, water, food and folding chairs.
As more and more people joined the queues during the day, barriers and police officers were needed to keep order. Conflicts flared up occasionally when people argued over places in line.
Bank of China (Hong Kong) will begin selling the notes at 9am tomorrow, a spokeswoman said. 'We are going to issue 4 million Olympic banknotes, and over 2 million of them will be sold in Hong Kong, which is sufficient for the city. There's no need to rush to buy.' she said.
The bank will issue the commemorative HK$20 notes in Hong Kong, Macau and overseas regions. Five packages, containing one or more of the notes, will be available at prices ranging from HK$138 to HK$1,388, yet only six of the branches will have all the five packages to sell.