What’s the most popular Winter Olympics design with kids and teenagers? It must be the mascot (吉祥物). Bing DwenDwen, a panda in an ice shell, was chosen as the official mascot for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games in 2019.

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) found that for mascots to be successful they had to be cute and liked by 9-year-olds,” said Cao Xue, the chief designer of Bing DwenDwen. “And I know Bing DwenDwen would be.” Cao’s team once made three designs and he asked his 9-year-old son to choose his favorite. “At first sight, he chose Bing DwenDwen, which was the final mascot,” Cao noted.

According to Cao, the idea first came from a traditional Chinese snack bingtanghulu—fruit coated in syrup (糖浆), which turned into the ice shell in his design. Cao’s team tried many plants and animals, finally going with a panda. “What can better stand for China than our national treasure?” said Cao. “We don’t need to explain anything to have it understood across different cultures.”

However, there were already too many cartoon images of pandas out there, so the mascot needed to be different. Cao first decided that it should be a baby panda instead of an adult one. This is how they got BingDwenDwen’s body shape.

Cao’s team then collected all the panda designs they could find across the world to avoid similarities. They even visited the panda nature reserve in Wolong, Sichuan, to look for inspiration (灵感).

“When we finally got Bing DwenDwen, our whole team was over the moon,” said Cao. “Now I can’t wait to see it greet the world at the Winter Games opening ceremony.”