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!

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