China's largest jewelry market sees gold buying spree as National Day holiday gets underway

China's largest gold jewelry manufacturing and trading hub in Shenzhen has seen a consumer spending spree as the seven-day National Day holiday gets underway, with processing plants at full capacity to catch up with orders.

This year's National Day holiday runs from October 1 to 7. Known as the "Golden Week," the annual holiday is also a peak wedding season nationwide.

In China, gold jewelry is traditionally part of the betrothal gift given by the groom's family to the bride. A lot of soon-to-be married Chinese people have taken advantage of the week off to buy wedding gold at Shuibei area in Shenzhen, in south China's Guangdong Province.

"I have received more than 100 groups of customers today. The turnover has increased about 40 percent, with the customer volume up by 30 percent," said Zhou Jiaxin, a merchant.

Although the international gold price remains high now, the processing fee is much lower at Shuibei market, making it an attractive place for younger consumers who are more sensitive to prices. This, coupled with the large number of shops offering a dazzling variety of designs, makes this area very competitive on a national scale.

During the National Day holiday, tourists from other parts of the country have become the main buyers of gold in this Shenzhen market.

"I took advantage of the holiday to explore this market. I heard that the Shuibei market has a cheaper price and more styles," said a tourist surnamed Su.

Rising prices have also made many gold holders choose to sell their assets at a profit. Many gold recycling shops at Shuibei market said that their business volume increased significantly this holiday season.

"The current recycling volume has increased by 60 percent over the same period last year. The recycling price for gold is 599 yuan (about 85 U.S. dollars) per gram, so people think that recycling is more cost-effective," said Jiang Wenci, a gold dealer.

The surge in demand has meant many jewelry makers are operating at full capacity .

Liu Jiancheng, head of the numerical control workshop at a gold jewelry company in Shenzhen, said that his factory has been extremely busy recently handling the spike in orders for wedding pieces.

"Orders in September were up 50 percent from July and August. The main product category is wedding jewelry, and the orders for "three gold" wedding products (necklace, earrings and ring) account for 70 percent (of the total)," said Liu.

Due to a decline in orders, some small and medium-sized jewelry makers had reduced their manpower earlier this year, but now gold dealers and producers say factories have been working overtime since mid-September.

"During the National Day holiday, the factory is working overtime to catch up with the orders. Our order volume has increased by about 20 percent during the National Day holiday," said Chen Yijie, a shop owner.

Gold jewelry makers have expanded the use of automatic and intelligent machines to improve production efficiency.

China's largest jewelry market sees gold buying spree as National Day holiday gets underway

Japanese protesters gathered outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo on Monday, voicing opposition to proposed revisions to three security documents.

The demonstration came the same day Japan’s government held its first expert panel meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office to discuss updates to the three documents, including the National Security Strategy.

Protesters said the government is taking steps they view as dangerous, including easing restrictions on the export of lethal weapons and seeking changes to Japan’s pacifist constitution.

"The export of lethal weapons in itself violates the constitution. From the beginning, they should never have had such weapons. So it is absolutely something we can not allow,” said one protester.

"This will evolve into a situation where wars can be constantly launched, thereby leading to the spread of war. That’s why I believe this is absolutely unacceptable. Since we cannot stop the weapons industry, they’ll try to start wars to keep it going. Profiting from weapons is absolutely not allowed and this itself also violates Article 9 of the constitution, so it must not be done," another protester warned.

Several protesters also argued that amending the constitution is unacceptable.

"I believe amending the constitution is absolutely not allowed. I think we have been able to live in peace until now because the constitution exists. With excuses like ‘the times have changed’, they’re trying to change it casually, turning our country, which has long taken an anti-war stance, toward war. Anyone can clearly see that intention. So I believe we must firmly oppose it," said a man.

"I feel an extremely strong sense of crisis. I also work in an educational institution. The children we have worked so hard to raise being sent to the battlefield - that is completely unacceptable," said a woman.

Japan's current National Security Strategy and two related documents, formulated in 2022, were designed to cover the next 10 years, but the government led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has decided to move up the timetable to accelerate the revision process.

Increasing defense spending is one of the key topics of the meeting.

The expert panel will meet once a month before finalizing a proposal around the fall, after which Takaichi's cabinet aims to approve the revision by year-end.

Japanese protesters rally against proposed revisions to three security documents