Beijing, Feb 7 (AP) The race is on to snap up scarce 2022 Winter Olympics souvenirs, especially stuffed versions of the ubiquitous Games mascot known as Bing Dwen Dwen, a roly poly panda in a winter coat.

People showed up with stools on Sunday to wait overnight in freezing temperatures for a chance to buy the stuffed animals at Gongmei Emporium on the Wangfujing pedestrian mall in central Beijing.

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Some were from a mini-industry of people who are paid to wait in line to buy the latest smartphones and other consumer crazes for clients.

The pandas were sold out Monday at many locations, including the souvenir shop at the Main Media Center inside the Olympics bubble, where Chinese volunteers and foreign visitors lined up for hours.

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A sign in Gongmei's window said it had 300 Bing Dwen Dwen figures and buyers were allowed one each. It promised more on Tuesday.

The Beijing Olympic organizing committee asked souvenir factories to make more, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Many reopened this week after shutting down for two weeks or more during the Lunar New Year holiday.

In the Houhai neighborhood to the north of the Chinese capital's center, a shop hung out a sign before 10 a.m. saying Bing Dwen Dwen souvenirs were sold out.

Gongmei's Wangfujing flagship sold Olympics merchandise worth 3 million yuan ($470,000) on Friday, the day of the opening ceremony, the official newspaper Global Times reported. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)