One buyer said "With the last piece of Olympic Gold Bars, I've completed my collection. The Olympics are a great event for China. The gold bars are important souvenirs for me."

One buyer said "No matter what, this collection has a special meaning because of the Beijing Olympic games. In addition, I think the design is very good. You can see, the “2008” constitutes a fire dragon. It’s rare to see this kind of design in any collection. So, I think this is something that should be passed on from generation to generation. I will not sell it, no matter how high the price may be. I will probably leave the collection, to my children."

Other gold products are also a big hit among Chinese people. In October, the China Banknote Printing and Minting launched its the Year of Cow Gold Bullion. They had to limit sale volume for each buyers to 10 bullion due to hot demands. At the launching ceremony, 1200 20 gram per gold bullion bars were sold out in 2 hours. It is the 5th year for the company to introduce Chinese-year themed gold bullion.The earliest the year of Monkey Gold Bars were now valued at 60 thousand, over 10 times of its original value.

Chen Tao, Director of Marketing of China Banknote Pringting & Minting Co. said "For our company, we sold 20 million yuan in 2004, and that figure rose to 1.8 billion yuan last year."

And the trend is likely to continue, for the foreseeable future.

Chen Tao said "You know, both the stock and property markets are going through some tough times. The problems are deep and may take some time to recover. Gold prices have also fluctuated, but not as much as stocks or even property prices. And today, as ordinary people’s living standard and disposable income increase, demand for gold collection has also grown. Also, China is growing stronger and wealthier. It’s hosting more and more world-class events, like the Summer Olympics, and the upcoming World Expo. These are marquis events, which will further heat up the gold collection market."

But some also cautioned the risks in the gold collection as not all gold products do necessarily have art values, which lays the foundation for its price jump.

Thanks to the development of the national economy and increased livelihood among Chinese people, gold collection is no longer limited to just the privileged few. It has also become increasingly affordable for ordinary citizens. And although the potential financial upside is one of its major attractions, most would agree that it’s the collection and historical value-a chance to hold on to a piece of history, that’s even more precious. And priceless.

(CCTV November 8, 2008)