Rationality is replacing impulse. Customers are recycling their gold jewelry. Soaring gold prices are discouraging white-collar workers, while custom gold processing services are experiencing a pre-Spring Festival boom. On Dade Road in Guangzhou, several gold processing and recycling shops are densely packed within just one kilometer, earning the area the local nickname "Gold Street." As the Spring Festival approaches, this street enters its busiest season of the year.
Typically, processing fees in the custom gold industry rise by 20% to 30% before the festival, yet many shops still have orders piled high. On February 10, a visit to the First Fu Gold & Silver Jewelry Co., Ltd. flagship store on Dade Road revealed a steady stream of customers checking out around 11 a.m. on a weekday. Ten artisans were busy at work, hammering, polishing, grinding, cooling, and soldering gold, occasionally looking up to discuss design details with clients. "We're too busy to even eat lunch," one artisan remarked, noting that goldsmithing requires continuous, focused work and constant customer communication.
As gold prices climb, consumers are becoming more calculated. Following the rise of high-premium brands like LAOPU GOLD, everyday buyers have grown increasingly sensitive to brand markups on gold jewelry. Rather than purchasing new pieces outright, more people are digging out old, seldom-worn gold items from home to be melted down and remade. By paying a modest processing fee, they can give heirlooms a fresh look—satisfying the tradition of wearing gold for the Lunar New Year without bearing the burden of today's high gold prices. In a year of record-high gold values, practicality is overtaking impulse, quietly fueling a custom gold revival.
01. Saving Nearly 10,000 Yuan on a Bracelet: Custom Gold Services Fully Booked The Spring Festival period is traditionally a peak season for gold consumption, but this year, demand for custom gold work is notably stronger. Most customers at these shops opt for pure gold reprocessing, bringing in old pieces to be melted and recast into new rings, pendants, earrings, or bracelets. Depending on the style and weight of gold, basic processing fees range from 110 to 600 yuan per gram. Based on this, processing a 100-gram ancient-method-style bracelet would cost no more than 1,000 yuan in fees. Compared to the buy-back or exchange programs offered by traditional jewelers like Chow Tai Fook and Lao Feng Xiang, custom gold processing represents a highly cost-effective alternative.
Mr. Zhou, an artisan with nearly 40 years of experience, observed, "Gold prices have multiplied, and custom gold work has gotten hotter. Customer traffic during this Spring Festival season is up 20% compared to usual days. Some customers come with luggage, getting their gold worked on right before returning to their hometowns. We've even had overseas Chinese from the U.S. and U.K. seeking our services." Amid fluctuating gold prices, consumers are realizing that branded gold jewelry often carries significant premiums for branding, mall operating costs, and marketing. Thus, retaining the gold and simply changing the style is the most economical choice.
Observations indicate most customers bring over 30 grams of pure gold for processing. Xiao Xiao, one such customer, explained, "Wearing gold before the new year is for good luck, symbolizing prosperity in the year ahead." She took time off work specifically for this purpose. She detailed the costs: processing over 50 grams of gold cost only 780 yuan in fees. If she had opted for an exchange at a conventional jewelry brand, calculating based on a 220-yuan-per-gram market spread plus the piece's crafting fee, the total expense would have exceeded 10,000 yuan. "Spending just over 700 yuan gives me a new bracelet worth around 70,000 yuan on the market," she noted.
To manage customer flow, Mr. Zhou's shop implemented an online appointment system, where booked customers queue in store. Daily slots are limited to about 20–30 orders. Normally staffed by six or seven artisans, the shop increased to ten during the pre-holiday rush, operating at full capacity. Each artisan handles three to four orders per day, sometimes up to six, yet demand still outstrips supply. By February 9, all custom gold slots before the Lunar New Year were fully booked. Some customers reported booking appointments a month in advance, while others arrived before opening hours to secure the first slot of the day. Those without appointments lined up as early as 7 a.m., hoping for a last-minute cancellation.
A visit to multiple gold shops on Dade Road on February 10 confirmed exceptionally high demand across the board. Order slips were stacked thickly in counter drawers. One staff member displayed the pile of custom orders, noting, "The shop is busy from morning till night."
02. Cashing In: Gold Recycling Also Sees Major Surge It's not just custom gold processing that is booming; gold recycling is also highly active before the holiday. Investigations revealed that First Fu's gold recycling outlet recently handled a major 600,000-yuan recycling transaction. Daily customer traffic at the shop remains stable at 20 to 30 people. A staff member commented, "Gold prices have been high for a while now, and many are waiting for the right moment to cash out." With the New Year approaching, needs for social gifting, family expenses, and liquidity emerge集中, making gold a flexible source of emergency household funds.
Another employee disclosed a recent recycling order of over 600 grams, totaling approximately 700,000 yuan. A few days prior, the shop received an even larger order of nearly 2,000 grams, estimated to be worth over 2 million yuan upon recycling. During the visit, a customer named Xi Xi was inquiring about recycling old gold at a shop. She shared that the jewelry—ten pieces totaling about 46 grams—were gifts from elders and relatives at her wedding a decade ago. Cashing them in at 1,069 yuan per gram yielded roughly 49,000 yuan. "Selling them now allows me to use the money to show filial respect to the older generation," she said.
The gold processing and recycling business is attracting new entrants. Pan Hong, for instance, invested about 2 million yuan in October 2025 to open a gold shop on Dade Road focusing on custom gold work and recycling, aiming to capture market share and benefit from the pre-Spring Festival demand.
In stark contrast to the bustling custom and recycling markets, traditional gold jewelry retail appears relatively quiet. A gold brand distributor mentioned that Spring Festival business this year is slower compared to previous years. In Shenzhen's Shuibei district, a major jewelry manufacturing hub, many factories closed for the holiday a week earlier than usual. Behind the pre-holiday rush for custom gold and recycling lies a broader trend: ordinary people navigating an era of high gold prices are finding their own ways to maintain dignity and financial security.
(The names of interviewees have been changed at their request.)