Today is the Mid-Autumn day, the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. It’s a pretty large Chinese festival and people all over the country celebrate it, this year It also happens to coincide with the National Holiday and so I am still on holiday. 🙂

The other day my boss gave me a large hamper of moon cakes or yue bing (月饼) as a gift. These things have been on sale for weeks and many stands have sprung-up all over ther city flogging them. We talk about the over commercialsiation of Christmas in the west, but here the Chinese seem to take this to another level! From what I see – and like in the UK – most ‘festivals’ seems to revolve around the buying of something for somebody.

Moon cakes can be described as looking a little like pork pies from the outside but they are sweet tasting on the inside. They are quite heavy and would probably not be considered ‘cakes’ in the UK – I believe they are from the pie family though the name moon pies doesn’t quite sound as good.! 🙂

I personally don’t really like them much, I think they are quite bland in taste though I shall be eating one come this evening, if only because it’s festival time. 🙂 The cakes have various fillings such as lotus seed（莲籽) orange peel 🙁 or maybe even water melon seeds! (西瓜子)

I think if they considered making moon cakes with chocolate or banana filling they could appeal more to my sweet tastes – and if anyone knows whether you can buy such moon cakes in Changchun please let me know!