Hong Kong - Thousands of Hong Kong people are expected to queue up for tickets to see China's Olympic gold medal stars when they go on sale on Thursday.

The government announced Tuesday that 24,000 tickets will go on sale on a first-come, first-served basis for various events involving around 100 medalists and coaches who will pay a three-day visit to Hong Kong starting next Friday.

The visit comes just one week before Hong Kong's Legislative Council elections on September 7 and at time when the popularity of the chief executive Donald Tsang has reached an all-time low.

However, announcing the visit the director of leisure and cultural services Thomas Chow said the timing of the visit was not politically motivated and said the athletes would have been invited regardless of the election.

Chow said extra manpower would be deployed to ticket-selling points to cope with expected crowds.

The events will include a show featuring Canto-pop stars and exhibition matches and demonstrations by gold medalists including gymnast Yang Wei and diving pair Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia.

Media reports said the athletes will first stop off in Sichuan, the province which was ravaged by an earthquake on May 12 this year which killed 12,000 people and left 18,000 missing.

It will be the third time China's Olympic athletes have visited Hong Kong. Around 70 mainland athletes received a warm welcome when they visited Hong Kong after the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Pro-China sentiment in the former British colony has risen steadily since it reverted to Chinese rule under a 'one country, two systems' arrangement in 1997, and especially so in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

A poll conducted just before the start of the games found 55 per cent of people now consider themselves Chinese compared to just 22 per cent in a similar poll conducted in November last year. (dpa)