An increasing number of Chinese people are attracted to the teddy bear and the culture behind it. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Every night, Wang Yixuan takes her teddy bear collection out of the cabinet. She gently hugs them and tells them her secrets.

"They are so cute and bring me a sense of security," said Wang, a 27-year-old engineer.

After obtaining her first teddy bear, a plush toy named after US President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt that was first developed in the early 1900s, in 2007, Wang began to collect teddy bears. So far, she has more than 100 bears, and she prefers "customized" DIY teddy bears, like an Audrey Hepburn teddy bear.

Wang is not alone. This month, the Great British Teddy Bear Company in the UK declared they will build a teddy bear museum and a theme park in Beijing's Daxing district.

The theme park is expected to see 250,000 visitors annually after being unveiled to the public in 2016, according to a BBC report on September 18.

Ding Wenshuang, who owns a workshop that does customized teddy bears in Beijing, told Metropolitan that because of the popularity of British culture in China in recent years, the teddy bear, a symbol of Western culture, but highly promoted by the UK, now attracts more attention from the public.

Ding's workshop started to see more buyers in 2012 because that's when more Chinese people began to learn about the teddy bear, she said. That year saw the release of the film Ted, which told the story of a man and his teddy bear that comes to life. At that time, she started her workshops that taught customers how to make their own toy bears. "I now make four to five teddy bears per month. Their prices range from 1,000 yuan ($157) to 3,000 yuan," said Ding.

Ding said that so far what most Chinese people know about teddy bears is limited to what they've seen in the Ted films. "But in Western countries, the teddy bear is part of everyday culture. It is a symbol of love that accompanies children for their lifetime," Ding said. "Some teddy bears will even be passed down for several generations."

In countries like the UK, Germany, and Japan, there are regular teddy bear exhibitions and international competitions for making more personalized and specialized teddy bears, but in China, there is no such competition and exhibitions are rare.  There are also few teddy bear craftsmen, she said.

"The opening of the teddy bear museum in Beijing will be a good chance for Chinese people to learn more about the teddy bear," said Ding.

Li Mingde, vice president of the Beijing Tourism Society, told Metropolitan that opening a teddy bear museum shows that the UK sees the great potential in the Chinese market.

"Plus, choosing Daxing district as the location for the museum is an important development strategy of the government," Li said. "The international airport will be built in Daxing, but the place still needs an appealing program to revive. The teddy bear museum is a good choice."