Mid-autumn Festival is coming. As a Chinese custom relatives and friends have started to send moon cakes to others. Many companies also send moon cakes as gifts to their employees, partners and clients.

An interesting phenomenon has appeared this year. A large amount of gifts are being resold online.

A reporter with China News Agency browsed an online sale website, and found that most of the merchandise involved festival related gifts, including not only moon cakes, but also wine, tea and other nutritious foodstuffs in lovely, gift wrapped boxes.

Because of the early expiration date, the price of these gifts is quite low. Some moon cakes made by brand names are being sold for below 50% of their retail price.

According to an employee of an online sale website, the exchange quantity and the hits on the website have recently increased.

During a random interview of several local Beijing residents, one remarked: "Most of the moon cakes are presented to me by my company and other cooperative companies, and they're free. I have too many as it is and I don't care much about the selling price, since it's so much better than throwing them away."

(China.org.cn by Chen Lin September 20, 2007)