Chinese fans ready for World Cup festivities

Chinese fans may be accustomed to a World Cup without Team China, but the World Cup would never be the same without Chinese fans. That is especially the case for the upcoming extravaganza hosted by one of China's neighbors.

The disappointment of the nation failing to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup did not stop tens of thousands of Chinese soccer fans from flying to Russia for their soccer dream trip.

Of the 2,403,116 World Cup tickets released between September and Friday, 40,251 had been sold to Chinese fans, according to FIFA. That made them the ninth biggest fan group in ticket sales. Russian fans ranked first with 871,797 tickets, followed by United States fans with 88,825 tickets. Another 100,000 tickets were still on sale.