New licensed products for the Beijing Games will hit the market to welcome the New Year and Spring Festival.
Over 50 kinds of products will go on sale soon, with half of them in the 'very affordable' range, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) announced.
"Learning from previous experience, the New Year's Day and Spring Festival will be a golden period in terms of sales," said Tang Yonghong, chief of BOCOG's Marketing Department Licensing Division.
"Sales should grow next year with all these new products available and the Games drawing near."
A series of commemorative medallions will be the highlight of the new releases. They each feature different themes, such as famous Chinese architecture or flowers, the Olympic venues, and the four great inventions of ancient China (paper, gunpowder, the compass and printing).
Some of the products are wallet-crippling. The golden Olympic lucky vessel, for example, which is shaped like an ancient cooking pot with four legs, costs tens of thousands of yuan. Others are refreshingly cheap - some 20 items only cost around 100 yuan ($13.5).
An order-placing meeting for local retailers was held Wednesday and the products will be available on the market soon.
