Mainland Chinese tourists tempted by the plunging price of gold emptied [1] Hong Kong's local banks and jewelry shops over the weekend of the precious metal.
With the price of gold falling [2] 15 percent in 2013 after a steady 12-year climb, hitting a low of $1,321.95 an ounce on April 16, 2013, China has developed a voracious appetite for the metal, gobbling up more than 300 tons of gold [3] [zh] over the course of 10 days, according to local reports.
Demand is so high that the Shanghai Gold Exchange Market had a record breaking exchange of 43 tons of gold in a single day on April 22.
According to London metals trader Andrew Maguire [4], 1,000 tons of gold has already been delivered to Shanghai in 2013 . In 2011, the total gold importation was 431.2 tons and 2012 the figure was 834.5 tons [5].
The rush on Hong Kong left the city empty of most of its gold holdings, according to blog Hong Wrong [1]. Below is Apple Daily's English report on the phenomenon made available on YouTube:
Song Hongbin, a writer of the famous book series “Money War” (貨幣戰爭) in China, highlighted [6] the impressive 10-day figure on popular microblogging site Sina Weibo:
业内人士透露:黄金412暴跌以来短短10天内,仅中国内地的投资人就鲸吞了实物黄金300吨,约占全球黄金年产量的10%!
His comment prompted much discussion, with some interpreting the frenzy as a sign of domestic crisis or a scheme to draw money out of China.
In Song's comment thread, “Ha Lou” (徽土豆 [8]) used traditional Chinese wisdom to explain the phenomena:
盛世藏古董,乱世抢黄金。
“Zhangnansen 1975″ (盗梦空间里的人 [9]) and “Beautiful water in West Lake” (西湖水美 [10]) believed that it is related to the failure of the stock market:
盗梦空间里的人 [9]:石建勋认为:中国股票市场没有投资价值,已经沦为利益阶层和权贵集团骗钱、圈钱的合法场所,老百姓已经被股市骗了多次了,心有余悸。目前老百姓手里有钱但缺乏投资渠道和品种,现在金价下跌,抢金子就成了老百姓必然的选择。
西湖水美 [10]:想想07年股市6124跌倒5000点以下时,大家疯狂抄底,结果一直跌到1664.
“Lihua” (lihua088 [11]) and “Liu Jihan” (刘济寒 [12]) believed that the Chinese economy is strong enough to beat the world market:
lihua088 [11]:中国人 牛啊!
刘济寒 [12]:一吨黄金约2.8亿人民币,300吨黄金约840亿人民币。大陆居民储蓄超过18万亿。
“Future Silver — Xiao Chen” (银在未来-小陈 [13]) and “Small reunion” (小团圆92457 [14]) predicted that the eventual winners are investors in the U.S:
银在未来-小陈 [13]:美国政府和投行有意做空黄金白银,月初奥巴马和美联储官员见面,后来美联储把会议纪要提前发给一些机构和银行,高盛就开始唱空黄金,接下来黄金暴跌,这都是阴谋。黄金的定价钱是由美国控制的,改不了十年牛市转变熊市的格局,黄金将会再一次探底!
小团圆92457 [14]:历史上,散户赢过华尔街的大鳄们么? 黄金已经不可能成为货币了。只是商品。