CHINA, the land of the panda, has failed to produce enough panda souvenirs for the Winter Olympics, admitted an official today.

Bing Dwen Dwen, a cuddly panda on ice skates, is the official mascot of the Beijing Games – but people in China are frustrated in their efforts to buy her.

With spectators largely banned from the Olympics due to coronavirus curbs, owning a Bing Dwen Dwen souvenir will be the closest most people get to the Games.

But demand is outstripping supply – Chinese media have reported long queues at a main souvenir shop in Beijing, with disappointed fans turned away.

A spokesman for the local organisers said the supply problems stemmed from the Lunar New Year holiday in China, which coincides with the Olympics.

“Because of the Spring festival, it is still the holidays now. A lot of workers at the factory are taking their holiday leave, so the supply of licensed products has been affected by that,” said Zhao Weidong, a spokesman for the Beijing Games organising committee.

“We are now making efforts in coordinating the production and supply of Bing Dwen Dwen.”

Social media users complained that the toys are sold out on popular e-commerce platforms like Taobao, Tmall and JD.

A hashtag calling for “One (Bing Dwen) Dwen per household” generated 210 million views on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform today. – AFP, February 6, 2022.