Panda dolls commanding attention, high prices online

Stuffed giant panda toys are gaining popularity amid a recent giant panda craze.

The health of Ya Ya, a panda in the US' Memphis Zoo, who is soon scheduled to return to China, has been worrying many giant panda fans.

Furthermore, the return of giant pandas who had lived in Japan on Feb 23 — Xiang Xiang, Yong Ming, Ying Bang, Tao Bin and Hua Hua, who garnered a huge fan base with his unique inverted triangle head shape — to Chengdu, Sichuan province, has generated created a wave of interest among the public. This has led to a boom in sales of panda toys.

Search volume of the key word "panda" in the toy category on the e-commerce platform Taobao in March was 10 times that of February, according to data disclosed to China News Service.

The prices of stuffed giant panda toys vary greatly, from a few dozen yuan to as high as over 1,000 yuan ($145) depending on quality .

In a popular giant panda toy shop on Taobao called Panda Factory, stuffed panda dolls were made of Hua Hua in different life stages, with variable prices depending on the doll's "age".

Dolls that are hand-made, use wool and have an authentic feel are usually the top selling points for high-end giant panda dolls.

The most popular dolls require a pre-order and a delivery time of 40 days.

As of now, the toy of 5-month-old Hua Hua, priced at 1,899 yuan each, has been pre-ordered by over 3,000 consumers in one online store.

Most consumers wrote positive reviews after receiving their dolls. A Taobao user nicknamed farewelly 520 commented on their 5-month-old Hua Hua stuffed panda doll: "So cute and authentic, it's totally worth the money."

Each high-end doll requires 30 separate procedures and three days to make, a worker with a panda doll manufacturer told China News Service.