A certain digital talking mascot is one product making a big noise as sales of Expo merchandise go through the roof, Matt Hodges reports.

Whether he is wearing a sombrero, dressed like a matador or greeting visitors at Pudong International Airport as a metallic robot, Haibao comes in one basic shape but many guises. His latest role, however, is as a cash cow for the Expo Shanghai 2010.

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The 35-centimeter version of the cuddly blue toy with the wavelike quiff costs under US$10 and is leading sales within the Expo Garden, said Yang Jian, deputy director of the Sales Management Department at the Expo's Licensed Production Operations Office.

Several storekeepers told Exposure that a talking version of the toy is popular but sales cannot keep pace with the silent version as the taking Haibao costs more than twice as much.

There are over 10,000 licensed products at 81 stores within the site, and more in the pipeline. Official merchandise sales at Expo Garden hit 32.32 million yuan (US$4.73 million) in the first seven days of business, said Yang. They spiked to 7 million yuan a day on the opening weekend, but dropped to about half this amount during the following five days, she said.

"We set a nationwide sales target of 20 billion yuan for the duration of the Expo and we're already over halfway there," said Yang. "It seems like these (Expo) products are selling better than the licensed products for the Beijing Olympics, so far."

Expo organizers announced in March that they had hit 40 percent of this target six weeks before the Expo opened on May 1. There are at least 4,000 stores selling licensed products in China, over half of which are in Shanghai.

Haibao, whose name means "treasure of the sea", is shaped like the Chinese character for person, or ren. His likeness is plastered across Shanghai on billboards, cut into public hedges, and now filling scores of boxes being lugged around the Expo site by middle-aged women in tour groups as gifts for their kids.

"Sing a song to me," said Wang Xuanyi, a five-year old girl from Shandong province, while shaking one of the talking blue mascots. "You have a nice voice," it answered, before asking her some questions. "I don't understand what he's saying," she said. "But I want it, mommy, I want it." Her mother obliged.

In terms of top sales, Haibao is followed by Expo passports and crystal models of the China Pavilion, said Yang. After that, themed key rings, mobile phone tassels and t-shirts take over.

The passports let visitors record their virtual tour of the planet by collecting pavilion stamps. They also appeal to Chinese people's obsession with lucky or auspicious numbers. They are so popular that hawkers have started flogging filled versions outside the Expo's gates for 300 yuan apiece.

"I've just found the numbers matching me and my dad's birthdays," said an elated 20-year-old Han Shiyuan from Beijing. She was one of scores of Chinese flicking through the slim yellow booklets at the Expo's retail megastore in Pudong. Chinese like to match the last three digits of the passport ID number with the month and day in which they were born.

Although officials have downwardly revised their prediction that 70 million people will visit the Expo, souvenir sales are booming.

Several Expo veterans told Exposure that retailers could expect another bumper harvest in October, while polls expect visitor numbers to peak during June and July.

Yang said that only a small percentage of the sales revenue feeds back into funding the Expo, which cost 28.7 billion yuan for the 5.28-square-kilometer site and operations. Related city infrastructure projects cost more than 10 times that amount.

To give a frame of reference, Expo Boulevard, with its flashing neon Happy Valley sun funnels, cost roughly the same to build as the Beijing Olympics' Bird's Nest National Stadium and Water Cube Aquatics Center combined, or 3 billion yuan.

Not that this troubles the souvenir shoppers, who are spoiled for choice and want more than just photos to record being a part of history in the making.

"We're seeing about 1,000 to 3,000 visitors a day," said one sales clerk at a medium-sized store inside the boulevard. "Fifty to 60 percent of them buy at least one gift."