If for anything, the recently concluded weeklong Lunar New Year holiday helped propel prices of gold in the Asian trading floor to rise on Tuesday, prompted by China's holiday bingeing of the precious yellow metal.

"People (in China) are still very interested in buying gold," a Beijing-based analyst said in The Wall Street Journal, noting Asian appetite into gold facilitated its prices to soar 10.9 per cent higher since the start of the year.

This, as China's 2011 gold production jumped to 5.89 per cent to 360.96 tonnes over a year ago, the China Gold Association said on Tuesday. The latest data marked a record high and ranked as the highest in the world for the fifth consecutive year, the association added.

The continuing fiscal crisis affecting the world today will support China's appetite for gold, long considered a safe haven to protect one's fiscal image, to further widen, the analyst said.

On Tuesday, spot gold traded at $1,734.92 a troy ounce at 0525 GMT, a $4.62 growth from its previous settlement.

However, analysts said investors may move to cash over safe-haven assets in the next few days, still due to the unending Greek debt restructuring talks. Once the U.S. dollar regains strength this week, dollar-denominated commodities become all the more expensive to investors holding other currencies.

China's buying for precious metal gold and jewelry during the Jan. 22 to 28 week-long holiday gave a record $95.28 million sales, a 49.7 per cent jump of over last year's Spring Festival, data released earlier by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce showed.

China's demand for investments in gold and jewelry will continue to climb regardless of the record-high price of gold in the world market. A growing middle class and a more affluent Chinese society will propel gold investments to hit 955.2 metric tonnes by 2020, according to data from the ShanghaiGold & Jewelry Trade Association.

Meanwhile, China's gold production performance in 2011 was attributed to its top 10 gold producers which gave 50.98 per cent of the total national output. Five province-level regions of Shandong, Henan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Inner Mongolia contributed 59.9 per cent of the national total.

China, the world's second-largest economy, is also the world's biggest gold producer and consumer. Its gold output first surpassed South Africa, eventually taking the top spot in 2007.