Sales of dragon-themed goods boom in Shandong

Accessories such as hairpins adorned with dragon motifs have seen a remarkable sixfold surge in transaction volume, while sales of gold bracelets are over 10 times higher than last year, according to the report. "Horse face skirts with images of dragons are very popular," said Hu Chunqing, the operation director of Chenfei Clothing Co in Caoxian, a hanfu production base in Shandong.

The company has sold 35,000 sets of hanfu this month, and half of them were dragon-themed.

Sales of dragon-themed kites have also been soaring. Orders for the kites were placed several months in advance of the Chinese New Year in Wangjiazhuangzi village in Weifang, Shandong, which is renowned as China's kite capital.

With an annual production of over 90 million kites, manufacturers in the village have been designing various dragon-themed kites since October to meet the increasing demand.

"A kite named 'Golden Dragon Playing with the Pearl' has seen a rapid surge in orders, accounting for over half of our total orders," said Sun Yuemei, who has been running a kite factory in the village for 18 years. "The total sales of kites is basically the same as in previous years, but the dragon-themed kites are selling better than kites featuring other zodiac animals compared to previous years."

Many Chinese living abroad also placed orders for the dragon kites on online platforms, Sun added.

A hashtag asking about people having dragon babies that began trending on social media platform Sina Weibo in May has been shared over 87 million times.

"The dragon is one of the iconic images in ancient China, and the zodiac sign of the dragon is more popular among young people than other animals," Liu Zhongxuan, design director of the Innovation Culture Service Co of the National Library of China, was quoted as saying by Tide News.