Mid-Autumn Festival promotions mean mooncakes, big business and fierce competition for bakeries. This year, the competition will be even harder - as the new administration under Xi Jinping continues to push its frugality campaign, leading to a loss of big orders.
It also means bakeries are being more creative and cost-conscious to win over new customers.
In Beijing, Daoxiangcun, a 120-year-old bakery, launched its first mooncakes on August 7. This is the beginning of autumn in the lunar calendar and in line with tradition.
This year the bakery is offering 32 varieties of mooncake filling. Alongside traditional ones such as egg yolk, sweet bean paste and lotus seed paste, the bakery is also putting some more contemporary cakes on its shelves - Chinese yam, blueberry and sweet potato. It has also prepared miniature mooncakes with strawberry, coffee, prunes and beef.
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But the bakery's biggest innovation this year is the launch of a new, so-called Beijing-style, mooncake, with a much thicker crust and far less filling than its Cantonese counterpart.
Cost-conscious customers will be happy to know the bakery is moving away from fancy and expensive gift boxes to simple wrapping.