Bing Dwen Dwen Photo:VCG

Sales for merchandise related to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games have gone viral in China, as hundreds of people lining up for four to five hours in the cold to get the panda-featuring mascot souvenirs and sales surge for clothes appearing at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. 

At 1 pm on Sunday, a 300-meter line was moving slowly in front of a licensed flagship merchandise store on Wangfujing pedestrian street in Beijing to buy souvenirs, particularly the mascot. Some people even brought chairs for the long line. 

"I have been waiting in line for nearly four hours and I came for Bing Dwen Dwen," a shopper told the Global Times, adding that she came to buy the souvenirs to celebrate the first gold medal won by Team China in short track speedskating on Saturday. 

"I think people want to get souvenirs and other items for the Winter Olympic Games, and I'm here to buy for my wife's relatives in Shanghai," a foreign national waiting on line told the Global Times. 

"We've been told that there's a big variety of things, and I think the most popular one may be the mascot Bing Dwen Dwen, and the one for the Paralympic Games (Shuey Rhon Rhon) as well," he said. 

According to the flagship store on Saturday, daily sales of Beijing 2022 merchandise hit a record high of nearly 3 million yuan ($470,000) on Friday, the day of the opening ceremony. Amid robust sales and long lines, the store implemented restrictions on the number of purchases by individual consumers and encouraged consumers to avoid peak hours.

Bing Dwen Dwen, the cuddly mascot for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, topped Chinese social media after the opening ceremony on Friday. 

As of 5 pm on Sunday, the topic "Bing Dwen Dwen" had attracted 2.15 billion views on Sina Weibo. 

Among all the hot searches across China during the Spring Festival holidays on JD.com, a major e-commerce platform, searches for Bing Dwen Dwen accounted for 90 percent, the company told the Global Times on Sunday. More than 10 million users had searched for the mascot on the platform. 

Bing Dwen Dwen is a panda wearing an ice suit, which looks like an astronaut and demonstrates China's embrace of the future and technology. 

Chosen from over 5,800 submissions from China and 35 countries and regions as part of a global competition arranged by the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee, the mascot gained popularity not just in China but also overseas. 

Responding to hot demand for the mascot, Zhao Weidong, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, told a press conference on Sunday that officials are coordinating with relevant parties to increase the supply of Bing Dwen Dwen items, and the tight supply of the souvenirs came as manufacturing plants remained shut for the week-long Spring Festival holidays. 

Nantong Jinfenghuang Crafts Toy Manufacturing Co, based in East China's Jiangsu Province, one of the three producers of mascot souvenirs, said there is no stock in the plant and the company will resume production starting from Tuesday, media reports said.

"Shoppers' enthusiasm for mascot souvenirs surpassed that in 2008. I have never seen a mascot toy that was out of stock," Zhang Qing, CEO of Key Solution Sports Co, a consulting firm for the sports industry in China, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The Beijing 2022 event came during the Spring Festival holidays, when Chinese people tend to send gifts and buy new clothes and that provided an opportunity for the marketing of Olympic merchandise, Zhang noted. 

Take the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games as an example, Olympic-related products generated revenue of $160 million, the Chengdu Economic Daily reported. 

Shanxi Securities estimated the revenue of licensed souvenir products alone will surpass 2.5 billion yuan during the Beijing 2022 Games. 

In addition to mascot souvenirs, down jackets and tiger-shaped hats and shoes worn by attendees at the opening ceremony have also gained popularity in China. The Lunar New Year is the Year of the Tiger. 

Chinese sportswear brand Anta saw its down jacket sales up 203 percent from Friday night to Saturday noon compared with the same period last year on JD.com. 

An Anta down jacket worn by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at the opening ceremony also gained widespread popularity on JD.com, with growing inquiries, according to customer service representatives from the platform.