[Photo provided to China Daily]

Inside the calendar are more than 100 poems from the novel and their interpretation, as well as more than 100 samples of ancient Chinese painting and calligraphy.

In Beijing, Polley Wu, 29, bought a calendar whose theme is food. It consists of 365 cards detailing an assortment of foods. "I love the fine watercolor paintings of the various foods," Wu said.

Beijing Guoke Interactive Technology Media, which produced the food calendar, said the first group of about 100,000 copies for 2016 sold out within 14 hours last month, compared with the 20,000 copies that sold out in two days the previous year.

About 280,000 copies of the Forbidden City 2016 calendar have been sold, said its producer, Forbidden City Publishing House. That compares with 228,000 copies for a similar calendar for 2015.

Forbidden City Publishing House, a pioneer in making such calendars, produced the first one in 1932 for the following year.