The iron wok produced in Zhangqiu district, East China’s Shandong province, went viral after being featured in a popular food documentary that began broadcasting last Monday.

A Bite of China, a documentary exploring the relation of food and culture, came back with its third season during the Spring Festival holiday.

Its first episode focused on the handmade Zhangqiu iron wok. According to the documentary, a Zhangqiu iron wok needs to go through 12 procedures, be put in a temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius and be beaten 36,000 times until it becomes "as clear as a mirror."

Zhen San Huan, an official online store of Zhangqiu iron wok, made an announcement. /Photo via Taobao

Zhen San Huan, an official online store of Zhangqiu iron wok, said that within one hour after the first episode, the online store sold out all of its 2,000 iron woks.

In a statement posted to its official page, the store also said that handmade iron wok took a long time to produce, so it was impossible to meet the large needs.

The store also urged people not to climb over the wall of the factory to look for iron woks or to wait outside the factory and claim that the factory does not allow visitors anymore.

According to the statistics of Tmall, a branch of Alibaba, the sales of Zhangqiu iron woks had increased 6,000 times.