The giant panda, Bing Dwen Dwen, was the mascot (吉祥物) for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. More than 1.4 million toy mascots were sold during the Games. Bing Dwen Dwen was the center of people's attention at that time. The "giant panda economy (经济)" became a bright spot in China, with many shops across the country selling a lot of panda-related products, according to newspapers.
During the May Day holidays in 2023, about 264,000 people came to Chengdu to visit the giant panda, Hua Hua. Chengdu became the second most popular tourist destination in China.
Hua Hua will soon be three years old and has caught the hearts of visitors because she can't climb trees and she is friendly. In fact many young people travel to Chengdu just to see the giant pandas. All 180,000 tickets were sold out for the first three days of this year's May Day holidays. Hua Hua increased ticket sales at the Base. There are many cultural and creative shops full of products about pandas in Chengdu. Clothing, shoes, hats, feed seeds about pandas in the shops have also sold well. As we can see, the "giant panda economy" has become a bright spot in consumption (消费) again.