Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics mascot Shuey Rhon Rhon Photo: cnsphoto

 
As the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games approach, sales of merchandise related to the Beijing Winter Paralympic mascot Shuey Rhon Rhon have gone viral in China, following the craze for Bing Dwen Dwen, the mascot of the Beijing Winter Olympics. 

A series of souvenirs including Shuey Rhon Rhon keychains, toys and medallions have gone on sale, and the Olympic flagship store on Tmall announced that pre-orders for Shuey Rhon Rhon souvenirs have been available since March 1.

The Global Times found that at the Olympic flagship store on Tmall, a Shuey Rhon Rhon decoration that opened for pre-sales on Wednesday at noon attracted more than 10,000 orders within hours.

A staff member at the official Olympic store in Xicheng District in Beijing told the Global Times on Wednesday that its products were already sold out, with many people lining up before the store opened at 10 am.

"It is also difficult for us to guarantee when we will replenish the stock, so we can only suggest coming to see if there is any early in the morning as the sales of the souvenirs have been spectacular," said the staff member.

One Weibo user surnamed Chen told the Global Times that it is comparatively difficult to buy Olympic souvenirs as she does not live in Beijing. "I am pinning all my hopes on the Olympic flagship store on Tmall, hoping to snap up the goods I want," she said.

However, the situation is not surprising as sales of merchandise related to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have been booming in China for a long time. Back in the early days of the Games, it was common to see hundreds of people lining up for four to five hours in the cold just to get the Bing Dwen Dwen souvenirs.

Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon have featured heavily in Chinese social media for more than a month since the beginning of the Games.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the topic Shuey Rhon Rhon had attracted 380 million views on Sina Weibo, the Chinese twitter-like social media platform.

Shuey Rhon Rhon is based on red lanterns and incorporates other traditional Chinese elements. Shuey Rhon Rhon is one of the few Olympic mascots to be based on a self-luminescent object, which embodies the beautiful meaning of lighting up the way ahead, hopes and dreams, according to the design team.

Some netizens say that they think Shuey Rhon Rhon is fashionable while Bing Dwen Dwen is cute. The price of the 22-centimeter-tall Shuey Rhon Rhon toy is $15.8 (100 yuan), more affordable than the Bing Dwen Dwen version which costs $31 (198 yuan).