(Yicai Global) March 30 -- Sales of life-like stuffed giant pandas are booming and the price is reaching thousands of Chinese yuan, equivalent to hundreds of US dollars, as a series of events keep China’s national treasure in the headlines, triggering an outpouring of affection, China News reported today, citing statistics from e-commerce platforms.

One shop on Alibaba Group Holding's e-marketplace Taobao sold over CNY1 million (USD145,188) worth of two types of life-like stuffed pandas on International Women’s Day earlier this month, the report said. And searches using the key word ‘panda’ jumped 10 times in the middle of the month from a month earlier on sister platform Tmall.

Another firm has sold over 6,000 life-like pandas to more than 50 countries and regions and a short video about the stuffed toys posted by another company has had over 110,000 views.

Recent news reports could be behind the surge in popularity. The poor health of Ya Ya, a panda held at Memphis Zoo in the US, has sparked huge concern among the public. And Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan province, home of the giant panda, has been advertising its panda tourism, drawing more attention.

While an ordinary, cartoon-like panda sells for only tens of yuan, equivalent to a couple of US dollars, life-like stuffed pandas are entirely handmade so they cost more to make, a market insider said. The procedure involves 30 steps and it takes three days to make one stuffed panda.

Editor: Kim Taylor