Remodeling gold jewelry gets popular in China amid surging gold prices

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frustrated by sharply rising gold prices during the Spring Festival shopping rush, many cautious Chinese gold buyers are opting to redesign their old jewelry instead of purchasing expensive finished gold products.

Some gold jewelers in Kunming City, southwest China's Yunnan Province have reported a notable decrease in customer traffic during the Spring Festival holiday, traditionally the peak season for gold jewelry sales. 

The decline has come as a result of high prices of the precious metal, according to one of the jewelers.

"In the period around the Spring Festival holiday, the price of gold has increased by approximately 40 yuan (about 5.5 U.S. dollars) per gram. Customers' first reaction upon entering the store is that the gold prices are excessively high. So, the foot traffic has decreased by an estimated 40 to 50 percent," Gao Shunyan, a saleswoman, said.

Many staff members of gold retailers believe that consumers' wait-and-see attitude is fed by the uncertainty about where gold prices will go next.

Meanwhile, a trend of redesigning old gold jewelry and customizing new pieces has been emerging in China.

At a jewelry store located in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, five to six customers arrived with their old gold jewelry for redesign and customization as soon as the store opened in the morning. The three goldsmiths there were busy fulfilling their requests.   Without changing the weight, the processing fee for remodeling jewelry is only 10 to 15 yuan (roughly 1.4 to 2 U.S. dollars) per gram. Mr. Qing brought an old gold bracelet and also bought a gold bar to create a new bracelet for his wife. The goldsmith spent over two hours completing the task.

According to Qing, cost-effectiveness and personalization are the reasons why many consumers have chosen to redesign their old jewelry.

"The jewelry brands' products sold at stores are quite expensive. It seems that they all are sold at over 800 yuan (around 110 U.S. dollars) per gram now. I bought a gold bar for processing, which is relatively more cost-effective," Qing said.

Remodeling gold jewelry gets popular in China amid surging gold prices

The two-day 2025 Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Conference concluded on Friday in Shanghai, where multiple globally leading "China solutions" took center stage.

Under the theme "Brain connects the world, wisdom gathers in Shanghai," the event gathered research teams from major universities, leading industry developers, and experts across the BCI sector to strengthen the connection between research, application, and policy.

As part of the event, the first BCI competition featured four categories—fatigue detection, emotion recognition, brain-controlled robotic cars, and brain-controlled robotic arms - with 40 out of nearly 100 teams from across China received prizes.

In the BCI Industry Innovation Exhibition Zone, more than a dozen frontier-tech companies presented cutting-edge technologies ranging from key components to comprehensive system-level solutions.

Exhibits spanned the entire technology chain, from underlying hardware to clinical applications, covering fields such as sleep intervention, mental illness treatment, and rehabilitation for degenerative diseases—highlighting the latest trends in BCI development.

"We completed the first domestic clinical trial this March, and next year we will launch large-scale clinical trials," said an exhibitor named Chen Yaoxu.

Shanghai has established China's first future industry cluster dedicated to BCI technologies. During the conference, several new innovation platforms—including a BCI service platform and a joint laboratory for digital neuromedicine - were inaugurated.

"We are guided by clinical needs and clinical scenarios. At the same time, we are opening high-quality EEG datasets for enterprises to support their algorithm research and guide them in developing concrete products that truly address real-world needs," said Wang Zhuoyao, BCI Project manager of Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

Shanghai conference highlights China's cutting-edge brain-computer interface innovations