'Peony capital' shines with new flavor mooncakes

Dubbed the "Peony Capital of China" for its role as a key base for peony production, research, exports, and sightseeing, Heze city in East China's Shandong province is now busy producing peony-flavored mooncakes ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Sept 29 this year.

Located in Heze's Dingtao district, Daoxiangcun, one of the oldest bakery brands in the country, is aiming to produce a whopping 100 million mooncakes for the major festival. These mooncakes are expected to be exported to over 40 countries.

Besides traditional fillings like red bean paste and egg yolk, the company is also offering peony-filled mooncakes for the first time this year.

Zhou Zhijie, director of production, said that the company has developed its own storage technology with the help of Jiangnan University and several local enterprises, and this has resulted in better storage conditions that in turn improve the quality of their products.

Daoxiangcun's factory in Heze has 26 fully automatic production lines that can produce over 2 million mooncakes and 150,000 gift boxes daily. [Photo by Yan Xiaona for chinadaily.com.cn]

The introduction of peony products has won the company much business, with orders pouring in from across the country. (Edited by Jin Yongxue)