Shenzhen's gold market sees consumption upsurge

As the New Year and the Spring Festival approach, the gold market in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, is experiencing a peak seasonal demand.

Shuibei market, a gold jewelry manufacturing and trading hub in Shenzhen, consumer flow and gold sales are both seeing a spike.

With international gold prices lowered recently, some traditional retail gold stores have seen prices drop below 800 yuan (more than 109 U.S. dollars) per gram.

At Shuibei market, gold prices even have come down to 622 yuan (more than 85 U.S. dollars) per gram.

The price drop, combined with the approach of holidays, has sparked a rush in the gold market.

On weekends, the market has been buzzing with activity, drawing crowds of eager shoppers.

"The foot traffic has increased by about 40 percent compared to last month. Especially on weekends, the crowd is so large that some salespeople struggle to keep up with demand," said Wu Qian, a gold retailer at Shuibei market.

Despite the price adjustment, consumers remain cautious about purchasing large-weight gold items.

As a result, small-weight gold jewelry has become more popular. Additionally, gold pieces featuring the snake -- the zodiac sign of 2025 -- are trending, with many wholesalers crowded with retailers from across the country.

"I'm here mainly to buy the 12 Chinese zodiac animal-themed bracelets, especially the ones featuring the snake. Besides that, I'll also be picking up related products like necklaces, pendants, earrings, and rings," said a retailer from southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Shenzhen's gold market sees consumption upsurge

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday presided over a State Council executive meeting that studied work on building a unified national market and reviewed and approved a plan for the development of a modern emergency response system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

Noting that building a unified national market is essential to advancing high-quality development, the meeting called for deepening institutional frameworks in areas such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, social credit and market exit mechanisms.

The meeting also urged efforts to advance high-standard connectivity of market infrastructure to facilitate smooth economic circulation and effectively reduce logistics costs across society.

Emergency management is critical to protecting people's lives and property, the meeting said. It called for accelerating the development of a modern emergency response system, deepening reform and innovation in emergency management, and improving coordinated response mechanisms.

Efforts should be made to strengthen risk prevention at the source, enhance monitoring, forecasting and early warning, and accelerate a shift in governance toward proactive prevention, according to the meeting.

A draft revision of the Law on the People's Bank of China was also discussed and approved in principle at the meeting, which decided to submit the draft to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation.

Chinese premier chairs State Council executive meeting