It's that time of year again, and the hotel industry is set to capitalize on it in a frenzied game of one-upmanship.

Most Chinese families celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival by observing the full moon and eating mooncakes. As the big day approaches, a number of Beijing hotels are getting ready to outdo each other by selling elaborate versions of the traditional treat.

The Taiwan Hotel's "Peace in Four Seasons" mooncakes are particularly attractive for their winning combination of taste and culture.

"The Four Seasons" are a series of four different mooncakes that promise good luck. The spring cake is green and represents life on earth. The colour comes from spinach and the cake has dried coconut and yolk inside.

The summer cake is red and made from tomato juice. The filling inside is a soft, sweet wax gourd mince. According to Chinese medicine, wax gourd mince is an ideal part of the summer and autumn diet because it helps to cure fever.

The autumn cake is yellow and made of yolk with sweetened bean paste inside. A milk-based cake represents the white winter snows, with green gram mince inside.

It is the second year the Taiwan Hotel has sold its "Peace in Four Seasons" line, and the cakes were extremely popular when they debuted. Top Cantonese pastry chef Guo Wenbin created the four mooncakes last year. For the past few weeks, Guo has been busy making them with his team and barely has time to accept interviews.

A number of hotels, however, do not follow traditional mooncake recipes. The Grand Hyatt Hotel makes mooncakes shaped like flowers and stars instead of the traditional moon shape. They are available in a range of colours, including yellow, pink and green, and are a favourite among young people.

Mooncakes can also be fun. The St. Regis Hotel Beijing's "Celestial" mooncake contains six yolks.

The Grand Hyatt Hotel and Swissotel Hotel are offering even more choices to customers, including mooncakes packaged with chocolate.

Low-fat cakes have also become more popular this year. Traditional mooncakes are even losing ground in the market due to high sugar and fat content. The Grand Hyatt Hotel anticipated the health trend and now offers low calorie mooncakes, which have sold well.

Over-packaging and product tie-ins have driven up the prices of mooncakes over the past several years. This year, however, packaging has largely been simplified and reduced due to new State standards and pricing regulations.

Packaging is still often very attractive, despite this move towards simplification. The St. Regis Hotel Beijing's mooncake packages become wooden chessboards when opened up. Customers can choose between traditional Chinese boards or international ones. The packaging and the variety of cakes make perfect gifts.

The Kerry Centre Hotel Beijing has designed their mooncake packaging into four layers of drawers. Each level bears the names of "plum," "orchid," "bamboo" and "chrysanthemum." In Chinese culture, these four plants represent integrity and quality.

Many hotels have started using environmentally friendly packaging materials, however.

A spokesperson surnamed Shen from the food and beverage department at St. Regis Hotel Beijing, says the hotel has strict standards.

"We are trying to make our products greener and I think this is where the mooncake market is generally heading," Shen says.

Rising ingredient and packaging costs have seen the prices of hotel mooncakes jump 5 to 8 per cent this year. Packs of cakes generally sell for between 150 to 200 yuan (US$18.5-24.7).

Companies are the hotels' main customers. St. Regis Hotel Beijing says 70 per cent of its customers are companies sending gifts to staff and clients during the festival. Of these companies, 90 per cent are long-term clients.

Hotels sell the cakes differently than restaurants do. Kerry Centre Hotel Beijing has set up a special room in its dining hall for visitors to sample the product before buying.

Some hotels, however, complain that mooncakes do not sell very well, due to government price caps on the holiday treats.

(China Daily 09/12/2005 page5)