月餅變“味”了？

Mooncakes with expensive packages

Mooncakes, a traditional delicacy gifted to families and friends during the Mid-Autumn Festival, have become an important ingredient in maintaining business and work relations.

With the festival falLing tomorrow, the reception areas of almost every office building are overflowing with boxes of mooncakes.

The traditional festival has become a Chinese Christmas of sorts, topping other occasions for giving or receiving gifts.

"We send presents to our clients during the Mid-Autumn Festival, rather than the Spring Festival," said Elsa Wang, who works for a public relations firm in Beijing. The company started budgeting months earlier and has been delivering mooncakes as early as a month ago.

"It doesn't matter how much a package costs.... Mooncakes are the best way to say: Let us keep in touch."

Lin Jian, a guest writer on the Financial Times Chinese website, wrote that the consumption of mooncakes has one simple purpose - to maintain relationships.

"How many mooncakes one gets measures his intangible value," Lin wrote in his column. "The more coupons you receive, the more respect you have."

The market has reacted to the increasing demand with expensive packages to lure high-end consumers.

About 250,000 tons of mooncakes were produced last year with revenue exceeding 11 billion yuan ($1.42 billion).

月餅是中秋節饋贈親友的傳統禮品，而如今，月餅已變成維持業務關係和合作關係的重要“紐帶”。

明天就是中秋節了，幾乎每個辦公樓的前臺接待處都堆滿了一盒盒的月餅。

中秋傳統佳節已成爲中國的“聖誕節”，也變成了人們“送禮”的最佳時機。

北京一家公關公司員工Elsa Wang說：“我們都是在中秋節送禮給客戶，而不是春節。”這家公司早在幾個月前就開始籌劃中秋送禮事宜了，一個月前就把月餅送了出去。

“月餅值多少錢沒關係...它是表達‘保持聯絡’的最佳方式。”

英國《金融時報》中文網特約撰稿人林劍在評論中寫道，送月餅的一個直接目的就是“維持關係”。

林劍在他的專欄中寫道：“一個人所得到的月餅數是衡量其‘無形價值’的標準。收的禮越多，說明這個人越受尊重。”

隨着這一需求的不斷增長，商家紛紛在月餅的外包裝上大做文章，以吸引高端消費者。

去年的月餅產量約25萬噸月餅，總收益超過110億人民幣（14.2億美元）。