Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Invitations to join syndicates for the purpose of purchasing gold in bulk for jewelry-making have been emerging on the Internet, as people are eager to take advantage of the newly available gold trade service.
One poster, as quoted in today's Youth Daily report, has attracted a dozen respondents keen to sign-up to the idea.
The concept arises from the late July announcement by China Merchants Bank of the introduction of physical gold trading, which starts from a minimum of 2 ounces, or 62 grams.
People calculate that it is possible to profit by making jewelry with the gold bought from the bank. The cost of do-it-yourself jewelry made with 1,000 grams of the 99.99-percent pure gold will be nearly 20,000 yuan (US$2,469), lower than that of the same weight of ready-made products, industry insiders revealed.
For example, to make a necklace weighing 12 grams, the buyer needs to pay a total 1,648 yuan to cover the gold material and processing charges, which is 10 percent lower than the market price of 1,868 yuan.
Industry insiders expect the physical use of gold will boost the bank's gold trade, which was formerly seen only in investment terms.
But they also warned that the actual charge for the tailor-made jewelry may not be as low as that, due to wastage during the processing and manufacturing stages.