"I came at 1:30 a.m. this morning," a person looking to secure a plush toy of Bing Dwen Dwen, the mascot of the 2022 Winter Olympics, said on Monday afternoon as he stood empty-handed outside an official store in Beijing.

Hundreds of people were still in line to see if they could get any Olympics products, despite a staff constantly telling the queue with a loudspeaker that no mascot-themed items were left on the shelves.

"I just want to go in and see what the situation is like," said Li Jianpu, a resident of central China's Zhengzhou city who is on a business trip in Beijing. "If there is [related souvenirs of] Bing Dwen Dwen, that would be better."

"We just want to see what's available. We are not sure what there is in the store," said Canadian expat Caroline Woodburn, a vice-principal of an elementary school in Beijing.

The store in Beijing's shopping street Wangfujing has only 300 Bing Dwen Dwen plush toys on Monday, said the notice on the entrance door, with a single quota for each customer.

All of them were sold within 20 minutes after the shop opened at 9:30 A.M., according to the unlucky guy who declined to be identified.

"Now, I am waiting here for tomorrow," he told CGTN, adding he was doing this all for his girlfriend, who is in big favor of the chubby panda.

Bing Dwen Dwen craze

The chubby panda, with a full-body "shell" made out of ice, has gone viral on Chinese social media recently, boosted by the opening of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on Friday.

Many Chinese people, athletes and even foreign journalists have shown their attraction toward the mascot.

Read more: CGTN Exclusive: Japanese announcer Gido Tujioka shows ardent unsparing affection for mascot Bing Dwen Dwen

The fever has led to a continuous out-of-stock of Bing Dwen Dwen.

"I've been waiting for over two hours since noon," said Zou Zhaojing, a programmer based in Beijing who also came to the Wangfujing store for the plush toy, but he carried out two boxes of stamps and postcards and a bracelet which has nothing to do with the mascot.

"Even the pin with Bing Dwen Dwen on it was out of stock," Zou told CGTN, suggesting the stamps and postcards were the only things he can get from the limited-capacity store.

The same happened online.

On its flagship stores in T-mall, not just the panda but almost every Beijing-Olympics-related products were still out of stock or pulled off as of 9:40 P.M.

The figurine of Bing Dwen Dwen, priced at 88 yuan ($13.83), was released with 2,000 of it three times on Monday evening but out of stock in just seconds.

On Sunday, "A Dwen for each family" became one of the trending topics on the Chinese Twitter-like social media platform Weibo as netizens called for more mascot items.

Read more: Big Star of 2022 Winter Olympics: Why is Bing Dwen Dwen so popular?

Restocking in process

China will increase the supply of merchandise featuring Bing Dwen Dwen, said Zhao Weidong, a spokesperson for Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, in a news conference on Sunday.

"We are paying close attention to this problem," said Zhao, attributing the reason for the short supply to the factories shut down during the Spring Festival.

The week-long Chinese New Year holiday, starting from January 31, coincides with the Olympics.

"...We have been coordinating [with factories] to increase the supply of Bing Dwen Dwen," said Zhao.

However, the restocking may not be that soon as the quantity of available Bing Dwen Dwen plush toy in offline stores are unpredictable.

"I am sure this store [at Wangfujing] will have them tomorrow," said the man who couldn't secure a toy mascot on Monday while requesting anonymity, "but I am not sure how many."

He was also not sure whether other licensed stores in Beijing will have the mascots or not.

The Beijing Winter Olympics features 109 events of 15 disciplines across seven sports. It will last to February 20 in three competition zones in downtown Beijing, Beijing's northwest suburban district of Yanqing and Zhangjiakou in neighboring Hebei Province.