Customers inside the Laopu Gold Co store at IFC Mall in Hong Kong on December 25, 2025 Photo: VCG

Chinese consumers have been on a "gold rush" during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday, which ends on Monday, as the festival is deemed as peak season for gold consumption with demands from wedding, gifting and other necessities concentrating and surging during that period. The rush also comes as the price of spot gold across global market surpasses $5,100 per ounce during the holiday.

A number of Chinese jewelry companies have launched market campaigns to promote their gold products during the holiday, aiming to draw in more consumers. For example, leading brands such as Laopu Gold and Chow Tai Fook have rolled out attractive promotional activities, including "spending 1,000 yuan and get a deduction of 100 yuan" discounts, "gram-based reductions", and "craftsmanship fee discounts," the Beijing News reported. Laopu Gold has also announced a full-line product price adjustment starting February 28 - marking its first price increase of 2026.

And, some stores of Zhou Liu Fu has launched incentive of 150 yuan off per gram on its gold products, while CHJ Jewelry stores offered a drastic cut of 247 yuan off per gram on its gold products.

A salesperson at a Chow Tai Fook store in Beijing's Chaoyang district told the Global Times on Monday that more customers are coming in and making purchases during the holiday than before. 

Based on her observation, the primary driver of current gold consumption rush is the wedding market. And as an essential requirement in the marriage process, a full set of gold jewelry typically carries an average transaction value of more than 100,000 yuan, the salesperson said.

Currently, domestic gold prices are generally around 1500 yuan per gram, nearly doubling compared to the Spring Festival period last year, according to media reports. And the ongoing "gold rush" shows Chinese consumers' strong recognition of gold's function as a hedge and value-preserving asset, analysts pointed out.

China's domestic gold prices rose in line with international trends. During the Spring Festival holiday, spot gold was traded between around $4,800 and $5,200 per ounce on offshore markets. The price reached $5,160 per ounce as of 12:30 am on Monday. 

Observers noted that the logic underpinning the gold price jump remains unchanged. On the one hand, the underlying challenge to the US dollar's credit status persists, driving the demand for gold assets. On the other hand, whenever a risk event emerges, it catalyzes gold's safe-haven attributes as a "hard currency," Zhou Yinghao, an industry analyst, told the Global Times on Monday. He exemplified it by a series of geopolitical conflicts since the beginning of 2026, including the ongoing risk of confrontation between US and Iran.

Zhou predicted that as global tensions show no sign of abating, gold prices are unlikely to come down sharply. But he warned that there is also the risk of high-level volatility - taking account of the substantial cumulative gains in the earlier period.

The World Gold Council reported that the total gold demand in 2025 reached 5,000 tons—a record high, breaching the 5,000-ton threshold for the first time. Global gold ETF holdings grew 801 tons - the second strongest year on record.

In recent months, a number of global central banks have been boosting their gold holdings. By the end of January 2026, China's gold reserves stood at 74.19 million ounces, reflecting a monthly increase of 40,000 ounces and extending the buying streak to the 15th consecutive month.

Global Times