Mooncakes of solid gold are a Shanghai sell-out
They cost HK$19,600 and have little investment value, but experts fear the golden versions could be more about bribery than celebration
They are the hottest mooncakes this season, selling out across the mainland. And their secret ingredient? Pure gold.
But as traditional pastry versions are trumped by gold counterparts, some warn the trend is a ploy with the shiny cakes better for bribing officials.
A China Merchants Bank branch in Shanghai's Xuhui district released 6,000 gold mooncakes earlier this month. The cakes, which weigh 32 grams and carry a 16,000-yuan price tag (HK$19,600), sold out in a week.
Shaped like traditional mooncakes, they have a colourful deer and osmanthus flower design on the top and bottom and celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Sunday this year.
"We sent text messages to our VIP customers, and they scrambled to buy it," Terry Deng, the manager of the Shanghai branch said. "Now there are only silver mooncakes available."
In Beijing, a heavy metal art-ware manufacturer recently started selling exorbitant gold mooncake sets, at 47,620 yuan for two 50-gram mooncakes. "We made 2,000 sets and there is only one left," a sales manager at the Jinyi Cultural Development Company said.