1,000 Fou Drums used during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics were auctioned March 8 at the Beijing Equity Exchange or BEE.

The final bids were much higher than initially thought, while an unexpected donation added a humanistic touch to yesterday's auction.

439 bidders joined yesterday's auction, which was the longest and most popular auction in the BEE's history. Beginning at 10 am it continued until nearly 7 pm.

Competition between bidders was intense at the beginning of the auction. More than 100 bids were received in the first 15 minutes. The highest bidder won the first set of 10 Fou Drums for 706 thousand yuan, 603 thousand yuan more than the initial price. 

All the 1000 Fou drum at the auction were sold out. The price of each Fou Drum rose by 40 thousand yuan to 50 thousand yuan on average. 

Bidder No.419, Mr. Yuan came to the auction on behalf of the Nanjing Fu Zi Miao primary school. His students wrote a letter to BEE, expressing their desire to purchase this unique Olympic souvenir. But compared to the soaring price of the bids, the money they had to spend was extremely limited, only 30 thousand yuan. Mr. Yuan bid only once.

The dramatic scene came during the fifth bid. Bidder 156, Miss Su from an Auto-maintenance company in Suzhou announced that their company had decided to donate two Fou Drums to the Fu Zi Miao primary school if they could win the 10 drum bid. Miss Su's voice suddenly won support from the many bidders. Some even booed a bidder who was trying to compete with Miss Su. 

Miss Su says they just didn't want to disappoint the students. 

"The donation was totally not our plan, but we found that the price was too high, the students definitely will fail if they only count on themselves. They will be upset when they find out the result. So we decided to give them care via our enterprise act. I am very glad, not only about winning the bid, but for winning the other bidders' support when I announced our decision. The all quit bidding."
Mr. Yuan says that he already told the students the good news via text message. The two drums donated by Miss Su's company will be used in the students' folk music ensemble. The total sales volume of this auction reached more than 52 million yuan. The Fou drums sold increased in value by an incredible 4668%.

According to the BEE, an online auction of 90 Fou Drums will be held soon. This is to meet the demand of individual buyers who wants to buy a single drum. Another auction of another 410 Fou Drums will be held on March 18th. Interested buyers can log on to www.cbex.com.cn to take a look.

Photo taken on March 18, 2009 shows the scene of auction conducted by China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX) selling "Fou" drums and "Zhujian", or bamboo scrolls used in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing, capital of China. This is the last auction of "Fou" and "Zhujian" held by CBEX. "Fou" drums are Chinese ancient instruments made of clay or bronze. "Zhujian" scrolls were used like paper before the advent of the paper-making methods in ancient China.

Photo taken on March 18, 2009 shows the scene of auction conducted by China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX) selling "Fou" drums and "Zhujian", or bamboo scrolls used in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing, capital of China.

Photo taken on March 18, 2009 shows the scene of auction conducted by China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX) selling "Fou" drums and "Zhujian", or bamboo scrolls used in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing, capital of China.

Photo taken on March 18, 2009 shows a sample of "Fou" (Bottom), or drums, and that of "Zhujian" (Top), or bamboo strolls at the auction conducted by China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX) selling "Fou" drums and "Zhujian" scrolls used in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing, capital of China.

Photo taken on March 18, 2009 shows a sample of "Zhujian", or bamboo scrolls at the auction conducted by China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX) selling "Fou" drums and "Zhujian" scrolls used in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing, capital of China.

Photo taken on March 18, 2009 shows "Zhujian", or bamboo scrolls at the auction conducted by China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX) selling "Fou" drums and "Zhujian" scrolls used in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in Beijing, capital of China.