Editor’s Note
This article highlights a significant price disparity in China’s gold market, where processing fees at smaller retailers can make jewelry substantially cheaper than at major brand stores. The quote from a jewelry store founder illustrates the concrete savings for consumers, pointing to a key driver behind recent shopping trends.
Li Yibai, founder of Mengjuan Jewelry, told Zheng Guan News. On February 25th, this was the market situation given by a gold jewelry store manager located in Tianjiao Jewelry City.
On that day, the reference prices for gold jewelry from brands like Chow Tai Fook, Chow Sang Sang, Lao Feng Xiang, and Chow Tai Seng had reached 895 yuan per gram. Lao Feng Xiang also adjusted its prices that day, with the main product price adjustment range around 5% to 12%. E-commerce platform data shows that a Lao Feng Xiang gold chain weighing about 7.6 grams currently costs about 1,718 yuan per gram. In Tianjiao Jewelry City, however, the price for most stores’ gold jewelry that day was 702 yuan per gram.
While some brand gold stores in Beijing had long queues and high-priced necklaces in short supply, some “gold hunters” chose a different path, heading to the most “golden” place within Beijing’s Second Ring Road—Tianjiao Jewelry City. Known as “Beijing’s Shuibei,” it is located outside Dongmen, Tiantan, and the Hongqiao business district. In the gold jewelry consumer market, there’s a saying: “There’s Shuibei in the south, and Tianjiao in the north.”
Even on a weekday afternoon, the first floor of Tianjiao Jewelry City was bustling. Ye Yizhi, general manager of Longxiang Gold, said that recently, every Saturday, the customer flow at Tianjiao Jewelry City surges, and the first-floor stores often become too crowded to enter.
The storefronts here are not elaborately decorated; some stores don’t even have doors, just a few counters connected together. Inside the gold stores, salespeople don’t actively promote with enthusiasm. Many gold necklaces are simply placed in transparent small bags inside plastic baskets. But this doesn’t diminish the “gold hunters'” purchasing desire. Many “gold hunters” come with pictures to buy gold, directly choosing their preferred styles.
As a distribution center for the northern gold jewelry industry, Tianjiao Jewelry City had no connection to jewelry in its early days. When it opened in 2008, due to its proximity to the Hongqiao business district and Tiantan, it was still a market mainly selling small foreign trade goods, also selling some souvenirs and tourist trinkets, with low popularity. In early 2010, this area began renovation and adjustment to become a jewelry market, focusing on diamonds, jade, pearls, and colored gems. At that time, Beijing’s gold wholesale was still concentrated in Xinkou.
In 2016, many gold stores needed to expand, but Xinkou couldn’t meet the demand. Tianjiao Jewelry City seized the opportunity, vigorously recruiting merchants from Xinkou. Many gold stores moved here from Xinkou in 2016.
A person in charge of Tianjiao Jewelry City believes this is all due to market evolution. These gold merchants had limited development space in Xinkou, with higher rent levels, while they have a large building of over 70,000 square meters to accommodate them, and the rent price is reasonable.
According to “China Gold Jewelry Market Report,” the rent for newly settled merchants in Tianjiao Jewelry City was about 6 to 7 yuan per square meter per day. As the years increased, it could peak at 15 yuan per day. In another Beijing jewelry trading wholesale city, store rent costs reached 40 yuan per square meter per day.
A person in charge of Haofu Jewelry said they initially came to Tianjiao Jewelry City because of the low rent. Later, many gold brand offices moved here one after another, such as China Gold Office and Chow Tai Seng Office, which settled here. When gold wholesalers come here, they can complete picking goods, selecting goods, and attending important meetings in one stop, which is very convenient.
Currently, Tianjiao Jewelry City has five floors above ground and two underground. The first floor mainly sells gold, the second floor mainly sells jade and pearls, the third and fourth floors mainly sell colored gems; the two underground floors also have some gold stores, but mainly sell silver jewelry and gold woven products. Currently, over 400 merchants have settled in Tianjiao Jewelry City, with a store occupancy rate of about 90%.
Besides buying gold jewelry, if “gold hunters” want to verify the authenticity of gold, it’s also very convenient. The fourth floor has the National Gemstone Testing Center (NGTC), where results can be known in less than two hours.
In contrast to the bustling scene on the first floor, the jade and pearl store counters on the second floor appear empty. Occasionally, some customers only make brief inquiries before leaving; the stores on the third and fourth floors are even more deserted.
In August 2023, Tianjiao Jewelry City began testing live streaming online. The market’s management personnel promote the jewelry market or help merchants broadcast on social platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin every day, letting consumers learn about the jewelry city and understand the prices and styles of popular jewelry. However, due to gold being a valuable item, online transactions are almost non-existent; live streaming only encourages consumers to come to the physical store to select and purchase.
Starting from developing the gold business in 2016, Tianjiao Jewelry City gradually became the largest gold jewelry supplier in the north, with many well-known gold brands sourcing from here. But in the past two years, the jewelry city began to focus on retail business. Inside the jewelry city, some stores mark specific counters as “Retail Zone.”
Li Yibai’s store has always been a supplier for well-known gold brands, with annual shipments reaching over one ton. Its service scope mainly covers North China, including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia, but mainly the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. She only started retail in 2024, in response to Tianjiao Jewelry City’s development strategy—to increase the visibility of the “Gold Factory.”
Starting from the end of 2024, with the continuous surge in gold prices, the sales volume of gold bars at Li Yibai’s store increased by 300% compared to the same period last year. Li Yibai feels that perhaps the consumer psychology of “buying the rise, not the fall” has driven such hot sales.
The gold stores in Tianjiao Jewelry City are not only suppliers for some well-known jewelry brands but also distributors for the Shenzhen Shuibei gold market. Shenzhen Shuibei is the largest, most developed, and most complete gold jewelry industry cluster in China, with jewelry merchants from all over the country coming here to pick up goods every day. A person in charge of Haofu Jewelry said that 80-90% of the stores in Tianjiao Jewelry City source from Shenzhen. Shuibei is just one location there; some brands also have their own factories there. Besides Shenzhen, Shunde and Guangzhou are also sourcing locations for gold jewelry merchants.