China's largest jewelry market sees surge in sales due to rising gold prices

Rising gold prices continue to prompt many consumers to buy gold accessories at the Shuibei Market, China's largest gold jewelry manufacturing and trading hub based in Shenzhen City of south China's economic powerhouse of Guangdong.

Although the week-long National Day holiday ended on Monday, there are still a large number of customers coming to buy gold jewelry at the Shuibei area.

Besides the fashion identity, young Chinese consumers choose gold jewelry also for investment reasons.

"I personally prefer buying gold jewelry. If I have money saved up, I would buy it because gold tends to hold its value well," said a local resident.

In China, gold jewelry is traditionally part of the betrothal gift given by the groom's family to the bride. Therefore, wedding gold has been selling exceptionally well in this Shenzhen market.

"At present, the gold jewelry products that sell well include items like these bangles, particularly dragon and phoenix bangles, phoenix hairpins, as well as gold pig necklaces displayed on this wall," said a gold dealer.

Moreover, the gold recycling market is also booming. Rising prices have made many gold holders choose to sell their assets for profit making at gold recycling shops.

"Last year around this time, I bought gold. It's been almost a year, I must have made a profit. I bought it for over 400 yuan (about 56.6 U.S. dollars) per gram before. Now, the current recycling price is over 500 yuan (about 70.75 U.S. dollars) per gram. The recycling price is 588 yuan (about 83.2 U.S. dollars) per gram of gold," said another resident.

China's largest jewelry market sees surge in sales due to rising gold prices

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight