Just how many jewellery shops can one city have?

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Hong Kong Culture - The importance of 24K Gold

Just how many jewellery shops can one city have?

The Real Hong Kong

Hong Kong Culture | A Personal View

24K or 999.9 Pure Gold - Hong Kong Culture 101

A fairly typical Hong Kong Jewellery Shop display, 24K gold wedding jewellery on a red background

The Importance of Pure Gold in Hong Kong

There are literally thousands of jewellery shops in Hong Kong, they are everywhere in every district and it is impossible to resist the urge to stop and look at a typical shop window display with the red background and chunky gold wedding jewellery with their intricate designs.

My first job in Hong Kong at the age of 18 was to work as a sales assistant for a company called Continental Jewellery who were a major player back in the day (the late 1970’s) and for decades had a shop in the mall at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile in TST, Kowloon on Nathan Road. This is where I learned all about jewellery.

They specialised in diamonds (which I have always loved) but there is just something about pure gold that is magical.

My job was to serve foreign tourists who were their main client base and it was boring work sat for 10 hours a day waiting patiently for customers but it gave me the opportunity to handle gold and diamonds and that was just fine with me.

For as long as I can remember the gold and diamond jewellery market in Hong Kong has been dominated by Chow Tai Fook, Luk Fook, King Fook , Chow Sang Sang, TSL and Tse Lee Yuen the legenary jewellery retailer - Tse Lee Yuen had a history of 150 years of jewellery retailing in Hong Kong and Macau.

Chinese people's passion for pure gold - for its beauty and luster, as well as its financial worth as an investment - goes back centuries.

In Chinese culture, gold has been revered for centuries as a symbol of prosperity and success. Chinese people consider gold to be a powerful symbol of wealth and abundance, and it is believed to bring good fortune to those who possess it and I should point out that this way of thinking applies to pretty much the entire population of the World!

Gold is also associated with the concept of “jin yun,” which translates to “golden luck.”

The old and the new 24K or 999.9 gold jewellery from Chow Tai Fook

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Chow Tai Fook the largest jewellery retailer in China

Chinese people have a long-held tradition of investing in gold, believing that the precious metal is the best hedging tool against inflation and Chow Tai Fook expanded rapidly in China during the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers bought more gold as a safe-haven investment.

Chow Tai Fook originally established in Guangzhou (just over the border from Hong Kong) in 1929 by Chow Chi-yuan. His son-in-law, Cheng Yu-tung, who rose from being an apprentice at the jewellery shop, helped Chow Tai Fook expand in Hong Kong before taking over the company in 1956 and the rest is history as they say. I should point out that in those days most of their business was selling chunky gold wedding jewellery, gold bars and coins (for investment)

Just when you thought you had seen everything. Mickey Mouse and R2D2 have never looked so good…. courtesy of Chow Tai Fook

These amazing (and rather large) gold statues are made from pure 24K or 999.9 gold and for many years I would make a point of showing them to my guests.

Chow Tai Fook is the biggest Hong Kong jewellery company and they have over 7,000 stores in China alone and in Hong Kong it always appears that they are on every street corner and in every shopping mall.

They have the rights to sell Disney gold jewellery and at their 2 story shop in I Square on Nathan Road near the Peninsula Hotel they have (or had) these gold statues on display, sometimes at the ground floor entrance and sometimes on the second floor… I have not seen them for a while so I guess they are upstairs hidden away (probably for security reasons given how much they are worth)

Simply amazing!

The Pure Gold Culture in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong the month before the Chinese New Year is one of the busiest for buying gold 24K jewellery items - Chinese New Year alternates between January and February every year.

This is a long-standing tradition in Hong Kong and China and it is thought that the origin of the tradition was because gold was used to represent the supremacy of the Emperors of old throughout China. Chinese people will often buy gold items such as jewellery and gold bars to give to loved ones to bring them good luck in the New Year.

So, buying gold is a sign of good luck or fortune. It is thought that around 65 - 70% of Chinese people interested in lifestyle and fashion believe that gold will bring the bearer good luck., bear in mind that in 2023 the population of China was around 1.4 billion people, that is an awful lot of potential gold customers and there is now a significant trend for young people to purchase pure gold jewellery.

Fook is in the name of a lot of Hong Kong retailers, it basically translates to good fortune and happiness!

As much as gold jewellery drives retail sales, gold bars and coins are also a popular choice in Hong Kong, because gold is considered to be a solid investment. Giving loved ones a gold bar or gold coins signifies passing on good luck and fortune on to them for the coming year. Given that gold is hovering at around US$2,600 per oz you can understand why.

So in a nutshell these are the main cultural aspects to the pure gold obsession

• Gold is thought to represent good luck, wealth, prosperity and good fortune.

• Gold is not only valued for its material worth as an investment but also for its colour. In Chinese culture, the colour gold represents not only wealth but also good luck. It is believed that wearing gold coloured clothing or decorating homes with gold items during Chinese New Year will attract positive energy and blessings. Red and gold are the predominant colours during the festival, symbolising happiness and prosperity.

• Red is a popular colour in Chinese culture, symbolizing luck, joy, and happiness and celebration, vitality, and fertility

So what is a Tael of gold ?

In Hong Kong pure gold is called 24K or 999.9 or 99.99 because of it’s purity and the weight measurement is in either oz, grams or a tael.

Tael is an old historical term that was used by the old British East India Trading Company who traded with China and was used to describe the weight of precious metals such as silver and gold

1 tael is the equivalent of 50g or 1 3/4oz

It can get a little confusing in Hong Kong as many shops quote the price that reflects the tael weight measurement rather the traditional oz weight measurement.

You will if you wander the streets of Hong Kong notice that as well as the glitzy scientifically designed jewellery shops (like Chow Tai Fook) there are small stores that look something like a shop from the 1950’s with just a few display cabinets, grumpy sales assistants and pretty much just selling chunky pure gold wedding jewellery and small gold bars, traditionally they quote the price based on the market price on the day for gold and then add a mark up for “workmanship” - this is pure gold we are talking about so you can take it to any jewellery shop and sell it back to them for the market price of gold, you lose that amount you paid for workmanship! still, gold is seen as a great investment here.

I should also point out that Hong Kong has a significant Indian population and Indian people are just as fascinated by pure gold as Chinese people!

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….. and one of these days I will write a blog post about Jade and Jade Jewellery in Hong Kong, I love jade but I simply do not understand the mechanism for determining the price of jade jewellery, I would love to know how they calculated the price for the jade bracelets shown below!

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All images where taken by me, Jamie, your English Host and Storyteller

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Discover Hong Kong - Pearl of the Orient

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