As Spring Festival approaches, it's time to buy gifts for family members and friends. Recently, pawnshops have become a hot place for customers to prospect for good stuff and better deals.

Let's take an inside look with reporter Liu Min.

Reporter:

In the Chinese culture, pawnshops always remind people of the old time when you were in urgent need of money and had to pawn your precious keepsakes. But nowadays, pawnshops have become a fun place to shop. In a big shopping center located at the west fourth ring road of Beijing, a newly opened pawnshop has attracted many customers to prospect for good deals. This is also one of the first pawnshops to open in a shopping center in China.

"I think this is quite special because many pawnshops in Beijing are located in the in odd corners or along the streets. The shopping environment there is not very good. But places like the shopping malls would attract customers to come more often."

"I'm going to get married during Spring Festival, so I came here to buy a gift for my fiancé family. Plus the quality of the products here is guaranteed."

These customers usually choose those pawned items, which the original owners no longer would redeem. These items usually include jewelry, jade and second-hand luxury watches as well as some digital products. A customer surnamed Zhang is looking at a luxury watch priced at 380 thousand yuan which is sold at 550 yuan in its franchise store.

"This watch is 30-40 percent cheaper than the brand new ones. Although it's a second hand one, it's still worthy of the price if I wear it myself."

The sale of gold ranks top among the products selling in Pawnshops. It's because the price here is usually 30 to 40 yuan lower per gram than in other markets.

Customers usually choose those well designed and packed gold coins and bars as gifts for friends and families.

"The price is usually 10 percent lower than in the department stores, and the design is quite novel."

Huaxia Pawnshop manager Li Chunhua says the pawnshops are providing customers more options in the market.

"If you want to buy those with most trendy designs and newly launched top brands, you can go to department stores, but if you want to choose those good looking, authentic ones at reasonable prices, pawnshops are the place you need to go."

Besides selling products to customers, pawnshops located in shopping centers also provide services to customers in urgent need of money. Customers can temporarily put their belongings in the pawnshop in terms of borrowing money.

Standing director of Beijing Pawnshop Association Yang Yong.

"Selling better products at lower prices to customers and providing traditional services at the same time have become a new trend in pawnshop industries. It's also quite convenient for customers."

Every Spring Festival, pawned products are usually on sale, but this year pawnshops became popular than ever, partially thanks to the changing attitude towards pawnshops among customers. Plus many rushed to pawn products to get cash during the financial crisis in 2008, pawning jewelry, luxury watches, and diamonds at only 50 to 70 percent of the market price. So a great amount of products have been accumulated in the supply market, giving shoppers some cool deals.

For China Drive, I'm Liu Min.