2010 is the Chinese year of the tiger. Tiger themed gold and silver products are enjoying a boost in sales as the Spring Festival approaches.

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.