虎年将至 "虎味"渐浓

对中国人而言，老虎代表着无可阻挡的力量。虎年将近，虎年主题金银商品销量一路走高，势不可挡。

For Chinese people, the tiger is a symbol of unstoppable power. As the year of the tiger approaches, sales of tiger themed gold and silver products are proving to be unstoppable themselves.

Li Shi of the Beijing Caishikou Department Store explains:

"Our store now has more than a hundred types of tiger themed products including gold and silver bars, coins, badges and decorations amongst other things.
A female customer plans to buy a tiger themed gold bar.

"I want to buy this for my son because he was born in the year of tiger."

Another customer prefers the silver coins:

"I think I can buy some as Spring Festival gifts for the children in my family."

Usually animal of the year themed products start to enjoy their hot season around three months ahead of the Spring Festival. Zhang Bingnan is secretary-general of the China Gold Association.

"More new gold and silver products designed for Spring Festival are produced each year. The yearly increase of gold product sales is over 30 percent over the past several years."

For the year of tiger, the hot season seems to be much longer than previous ones. Tiger themed products began to flood into the market last September and there are still new products coming out with less than one month before the festival.

Many new products are linked with more cultural elements such as gold bars with tiger scenes from famous paintings or fictional tales.

The National Museum of China recently launched four new types of tiger themed products. Chen Yongde, head of the product development center, says:

"When we designed the products, we tried to combine the characteristics of our museum, history and culture elements and the taste of modern people together."

Gold prices increased about 40 percent in 2009, and industry analysts predict the price won't see a decrease in 2010 or even 2011.