New mooncakes too valuable to be eaten

(Ecns.cn)--With Mid-Autumn Festival set to begin on September 30, mooncake prices are causing jaws to drop once again. More than 10 brands are selling gift boxes of the distinctively Chinese sweetmeat for more than 1,000 yuan (US$158), China Economic Weekly reports.

Yet despite the sky-high prices, mooncakes are hardly a flashy affair. These required holiday treats are merely heavy blocks of paste containing one or two egg yolks, all of it encased in a thin pastry embossed with Chinese characters. The exorbitant prices charged for them are rarely justified (and often cause public outrage).

Not so for a new breed, however, which one dare not even eat.

"Nowadays it's pretty old school to give friends real mooncakes as gifts. A gift box costing 300-500 yuan is hardly presentable, and your friend may not even like eating mooncakes. So gold and silver mooncakes are a better choice, because they have great collectability and ornamental value," said a salesperson at the Beijing Kingee Culture Company.

That's right: solid gold mooncakes.

According to Kingee Culture, a set of two gold mooncakes weighing 10 grams each will cost you 9,520 yuan, while a set of two at 50 grams each sells for 47,620 yuan (US$7,557). All come with state-issued warranty certificates.

But even if you've got the cash, you're probably too late.

"They may be out of stock in September," said a bank manager in Guangdong Province, who added that one customer alone bought a dozen boxes as gifts for his employees.

Despite their cost, Kingee's priciest boxes of golden mooncakes were almost completely sold out. "The quota for Beijing is 2,000, and now there is only one set left," said a clerk.