Yang Qian wins Tokyo Olympics first gold medal Photo:Cui Meng/GT

From shirts and scarves to projectors and barbells, Chinese-made goods are flooding Japan during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, while peripheral products have become hot sellers on China's e-commerce platforms as Chinese athletes win streams of Olympic medals. 

The phenomenon has again shown the strength of China's manufacturing industry, when many countries' supply chains are crippled by the coronavirus outbreak. 

According to South Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily, almost half of the Tokyo Olympics' sports equipment was made in China.

Yang Xuejian, a sports match engineer at Hebei Zhangkong Barbell Co, arrived at Japan's Narita International Airport on July 12 to install barbells for the Games. The company had earlier planned to send around a dozen staffers to Japan for the Olympics, but the plan was modified as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. 

This is the third time that Hebei Zhangkong supplied the Olympic Games, after the events in Beijing and Rio de Janeiro. To become a Tokyo Olympics supplier, the company beat five overseas competitors - including some from Japan and the US - and won a deal to provide 16 sets of competition and warm-up barbells, as well as 50 sets of training barbells. 

"The secret behind us being picked as an Olympic Games supplier is not only the quality of our products, but also the standard of our competition maintenance service team," he told the Global Times, adding that he inspects the barbell equipment three times a day to ensure that there isn't any damage.

Yang said that the Games have offered a good chance to enhance the brand's popularity, as its logos appear frequently in images from the event.

The company is just one of many Chinese producers that supplied the Olympics this year. According to media reports, the mats for the Tokyo Olympics' judo matches were made by China's Taishan Sports Industry Group Co, which uses environmentally friendly materials. Shanghai-based DHS supplied table tennis balls and tennis balls for the Games.

Apart from sports equipment, sales of many other Chinese goods to Japan also soared as a result of the Games. According to statistics from Alibaba.com, the sales of Chinese-made projectors to Japan rocketed by 113 percent on a yearly basis from April to June. 

Olympic peripheral products have also been ubiquitous on Chinese e-commerce platforms and some of them have become "hot items" along with record-breaking performances by Chinese athletes. 

Tian Cuitong, manager of the flagship store of the Olympic Games on Tmall, said that products such as plush toys, mascots and gold-plated bronze medallions have been "hot sellers" recently. 

"Since July this year, the number of visitors to the Olympics' Tmall official flagship store has surged, with year-on-year increase of more than 65 times," Tian told the Global Times. 

A vendor in Yiwu of East China's Zhejiang Province surnamed Sheng told the Global Times on Thursday that the duck and carrot-themed hairpins, which are the same as those worn by China's double gold medalist Yang Qian, have become best sellers since she won two gold medals in the women's 10-meter air rifle and mixed 10-meter air rifle team event. 

"Daily sales peaked at 30,000 and have now stabilized at about 3,000 pieces," said Sheng. His company has sold over 100,000 pieces so far.

A manager surnamed Su at an accessory processor based in Zhejiang's Jinhua said that the company got many orders for items used or worn by winning athletes. "Actually, we have those models and patterns, and it is easy to supply them," Su told the Global Times on Thursday.