Freshly baked "Qisu", Yiwu's mooncake. [Photo/ywcity.cn]

With Mid-Autumn Festival just around the corner, local mooncake producers in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province, have been in their busiest season.

Mooncakes, a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the festival and symbolizing family reunion, have already been pre-ordered at the markets.

"Qisu", the name of Yiwu's mooncake, has some special features:

It is stamped

Chinese mooncakes are always covered with red stamps. Some regions use red dots and some use patterns, and Yiwu mooncakes feature the name of the company.

Small pieces of paper are on the mooncake's body

There is a small hole on the back of Yiwu mooncake to allow moisture inside the cake. Sticking this paper will prevent the filling from flowing out of the hole. If it is a machine-made mooncake, there is no paper.

Mysterious red and green strips

Many people who eat Yiwu mooncakes are curious about the red and green strips inside the mooncakes. This is one of the main features of the Yiwu mooncake. In the past, the red and green strips were dried immature grapefruit skin cut into filaments to eliminate "fire-evil". Today ,these strips are made from radish and wax gourd.

A worker inks red stamps on Yiwu's mooncakes.[Photo/ywcity.cn]

Yiwu's mooncakes are packaged in oiled paper, with 10 pieces in a tube. [Photo/ywcity.cn]