MuyuXu and Karolos Grohmann

BEIJING (Reuters), – China plans to increase merchandise with “Bing Dwen Dwen”, a panda mascot for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. The organising committee stated on Sunday.

It was announced as Chinese media reported that many people had difficulty purchasing souvenirs in the shape of the panda, a soft-bodied transparent body suit. People had waited hours for soft toys in Beijing’s flagship store but couldn’t get them.

Zhao Weidong (a spokesperson for the Beijing Olympics Organising Committee) stated that they are closely monitoring this issue.

Zhao stated that the shortage of “Bing Dwen Dwen”, was due to the fact that the factories were closed for the Lunar New Year week, which coincides with the Olympics.

“This issue is a reflection of Beijing Winter Olympics’ popularity and also highlights 300 million Chinese participating in winter sports.”

Rarely, mascots have sold out in the first few days after an Olympics. Some mascots are almost forgotten even after the Games. This was evident at Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2018, when “Vinicius,” or the 2002 Salt Lake City trio, of Powder, the coyte, and Coal, were the only ones to sell out.

Shanxi Securities estimates that Beijing Olympic license products sales could generate 2.5 billion yuan (394.80 Million) in revenue over the Games.

The No.4 topic most talked about on Weibo (NASDAQ : China) has been “One Dwen in each family”, with 10.38m viewers over the last 24 hours. Chinese internet users demand that the organizers meet this growing demand.

Social media users shared their opinion that having an Olympics souvenir made them feel closer to the Games. This is despite the fact that tickets for the events weren’t sold out to the general public in order to reduce COVID-19.

One Weibo user, “famous European”, wrote: “To demonstrate that I am actively taking part in the Winter Olympics,”

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