Students from Haizhouwan Primary School in the city of Lianyungang, East China's Jiangsu Province, pass a flag overhead on Monday to mark the first day of school and as a part of the "Motherland is in my heart" educational activity. Photo: VCG

As the National Day approaches, national flags, flag buntings, balloons, flag stickers, lanterns and other celebration paraphernalia are selling like hotcakes on China's e-commerce platforms, and flag manufacturers are rushing to make more flags. 

A search on National Day products on Taobao, China's e-commerce giant, gave more than 28,000 results on Wednesday, with the hot items being   flags, hand-held flags and flag buntings. 

Several customer service employees of those shops told the Global Times that sales have risen sharply since August. 

A salesperson from a flag factory in Shijiazhuang, North China's Hebei Province said that they have sold more than 60,000 national flags and flagpoles since August. 

She said their sales would usually increase before each National Day in the past years, but that this year is a very good year for the company. She believes it's because this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). 

"We have sold out all our flags in stock, and have been making new ones," she said. 

Other celebration paraphernalia, such as car decals and refrigerator magnets showing the country's map and the Chinese characters for "China," balloons printed with "PRC 70" and decorations for cars could be found on several e-commerce platforms.  

Customer reviews show the products are also being bought by schools and companies. 

A sales manager of a flag manufacturer in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province, also known as the world's largest wholesale market for daily commodities, surnamed He, said they also have customers from overseas, mostly Chinese people working or studying abroad. He said his company has sold around 40,000 hand-held flags since August. 

Many Chinese cities have hung national flags along the street, communities and outside of shops. 

A total of 26,000 national flags have been hung on the streets in Nanning, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region this month. 

Youth in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region also took photos of themselves waving the national flag at the Golden Bauhinia Square on Tuesday to express their wishes to their motherland, the Xinhua News Agency reported.