China embraces Mid-Autumn Festival with local creative mooncakes

As the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, people across China are busy making creative mooncakes with local features, blending cultural symbols and characteristic flavors.

The festival, celebrated annually on the 15th day of the eighth month on the Chinese calendar, falls on Oct 6 this year. As one of China's most important traditional holidays, it is a joyous time when family members come together, appreciate the full moon and share mooncakes, a traditional pastry, to mark the harvest season and an occasion of family reunion. In Yuanjiang County of southwest China's Yunnan Province, the craft of making big buckwheat mooncakes has been passed down for more than 70 years. The dough, made from wheat and buckwheat flour, wraps a filling of mixed nuts, ham, red bean paste and brown sugar.

For locals, the familiar taste is not only a festive treat, but also a warm memory of family life and time spent together.

In Jiangmen, south China's Guangdong Province, bakers draw inspiration from the traditional Lion Dance and Spring Chant, both listed as provincial-level intangible cultural heritage. They have designed molds featuring lion heads, wooden dummies and classic Spring Chant moves, and filled mooncakes with matcha or pineapple-flavored stuffing to attract consumers, particularly young people. "The Lion Dance and Spring Chant patterns are really creative. I'm buying them for my kids so that they can learn about our local traditional cultures," said a customer named Zhang Huixian.

In Zaozhuang City, east China's Shandong Province, an innovative creation mixing the region's famed spicy chicken dish with the artistry of flower-shaped steamed buns has led to a kind of spicy chicken flower bun mooncakes,

"I'd like to buy a box of the mooncakes to gift my relatives and friends from out of town. It looks beautiful," said a Zaozhuang resident named Wang Lingli.

In Xiyang County, north China's Shanxi Province, a hands-on mooncake workshop brought the festival spirit to life. Locals gather to knead dough, shape fillings and press molds, reviving traditional techniques while adding a personal touch to the celebration.

China embraces Mid-Autumn Festival with local creative mooncakes

China embraces Mid-Autumn Festival with local creative mooncakes

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Friday chaired a State Council executive meeting which mulled measures to boost consumption by accelerating the formation of new growth points in service consumption.

The meeting called for continued efforts to boost consumption by fully leveraging the integrated effects of different policies, linking improvement in people's wellbeing to consumption growth, and giving full play to the fundamental role of consumption in driving economic growth.

The meeting emphasized the importance of accelerating the cultivation of new growth points in service consumption, supporting new business forms, models, and scenarios, and increasing the supply of high-quality services.

Efforts should be made to improve the long-term mechanism for promoting consumption by formulating and implementing plans aimed at expanding consumption during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), increasing the income of urban and rural residents, speeding up the removal of unreasonable restrictive measures for consumption, and implementing the paid leave system. These measures are intended to boost people's consumption capacity and willingness to spend, promote the upgrading of consumption and industrial structures, and accelerate the building of a strong domestic market.

The meeting also made arrangements for actions to clear overdue payments to enterprises and ensure the issue of wage arrears for migrant workers is properly addressed. The meeting also deliberated and adopted a draft decision of the State Council on revising and abolishing some administrative regulations.

Chinese premier chairs meeting on promoting service consumption