Eight-Day Spring Festival Sees Surge in Chinese Gold Jewelry Sales

Shoppers across multiple Chinese markets flocked to gold shops during the Lunar New Year period, pushing lightweight pieces and zodiac-themed designs to the top of sales lists while retail gold prices climbed above ¥1,500 per gram. Industry insiders and chain retailers registered heavy foot traffic and promotional holiday offers as consumers prioritized small, affordable items such as one-gram "golden beans" alongside Year of the Horse motifs.

"Gold products infused with Year of the Horse imagery and auspicious cultural themes, alongside lightweight items such as one-gram 'golden beans', have emerged as standout best-sellers during the holiday," industry insider Lin Yu said, summarizing what stores from Beijing to Hong Kong were selling. Photographs from a Laopu Gold Co store at IFC Mall in Hong Kong on December 25, 2025 captured similar in-store bustle, and domestic media reported retailers raising prices drastically during the festival season.

Price anchors helped explain the buying rush. Major Chinese retailers reported an average selling price of ¥1,529 per gram for gold jewelry, up from about ¥890 per gram during the same period last year, while broader market commentary put global bullion near the $5,100-per-ounce mark. The combination of higher spot values and festival demand squeezed consumers and merchants into a narrow purchasing window, since many retail outlets close for the week-long Spring Festival and purchases are often compressed into the two-to-four weeks before the holiday.

For younger buyers, affordability framed desire. "Traditional heavy gold bangles are just too expensive for me right now. But buying a little bean each month is affordable. It feels like I'm treating myself, but I'm also saving money. It's much more motivating than just putting cash in a bank account," said Chen Sisi, a 26-year-old consultant in Beijing, describing why one-gram pieces outsold heavier bangles. Other consumers treated small gold items as gifts: "It feels more thoughtful than a red envelope with 1,000 yuan in cash," said Liu Huilan in a comment reported to the South China Morning Post and cited in market coverage.

Policy and broader consumption indicators set the backdrop. Vice-Commerce Minister Sheng Qiuping said, "At the start of this year, the first group of fiscal funds totaling 62.5 billion yuan has been disbursed to local commerce departments for this year’s consumer goods trade-ins." He added, "In addition, a total of 2.05 billion yuan has been allocated by local governments for direct consumer benefits via vouchers, subsidies and digital cash red packets." The Ministry of Commerce reported domestic travel spending rose 4.5 percent year-on-year in the first three days of the holiday and car rental orders jumped 26 percent.

The festival surge fed global bullion flows. Money Metals reported that Chinese buying helped push gold bar and coin demand to a 12-year high of 1,374.1 tonnes and a record $154 billion in value, noting that Chinese funds added about 133 tonnes in 2025 and that more than half of global coin and bar demand came from China and India. Market mechanics amplified the effect: Shanghai Gold Exchange withdrawals typically surge 200-300 percent in pre-holiday periods, and regulators have tightened bank risk controls and investor assessments for gold-related financial products as ETF and fund demand climbed.

Some outlets described the holiday as an eight-day Spring Festival while others called it a record nine-day holiday; reporting varied across Global Times and longer-form coverage by Wang Keju and Ren Qi. Whether counted as eight or nine days, the concentrated festival buying, subsidized consumer measures and record bullion flows together made this Lunar New Year a defining moment for gold jewelry sales and for broader domestic consumption patterns.