Today on the Chinese calendar it’s the mid-Autumn festival- halfway to winter presumably even though the hot and sticky weather yesterday made me sweat like a Welsh dyslexic. From what I can gather, the festival involves getting the whole family together to eat and spend time together (like Christmas) and giving gifts of rich, sweet things to eat (like Easter).

Here though, the rich, sweet things are moon cakes- heavy pastry cakes that are filled with a marzipanish paste, egg yolks, nuts and general gloopiness. Of all of the Chinese people I’ve asked, not a single man jack of them has said that they enjoy eating the things, but I’ve still seen people queue outside bakeries to buy a box (for at least 60RMB, and usually more like 100-200RMB depending on the fanciness of the fancies).

Hello Kitty
Hello Kitty mooncakes

Apparently it’s hardly even about the cakes themselves these days either, it’s the fancy gold box studded with diamonds that it comes in. In Guangzhou there’s a box of mooncakes for 300,000RMB (over 20,000 quid)- although to be fair, you get a small apartment thrown in as a deal-sweetener.

Mooncakes; from bloody everywhere.