While moon cake producers are racking their brains to design various kinds of gorgeous and delicate moon cakes, many people prefer vegan ones that come from temples due to their auspicious implication.

As the Mid-Autumn Festival is around the corner, Shanghai Yufo Temple is busy producing animal fat-free vegetarian mooncakes with five-nuts, seaweed, black sesame and kumquat fillings.

In the temple’s food factory, located in Putuo District of Shanghai, more than 150 workers are hustling in the workshops to make over 70,000 moon cakes every day. Instead of butter, vegetable oil with low cholesterol is used to puff the dough to make the cakes smell naturally fragrant.

The temple began self-production of moon cakes, soy snacks and pastries in the 1980s. Vegetarian moon cakes were first made only for monks and pilgrims but later a portion have been donated to the public or sold in supermarkets and on e-commerce platforms.

Photo/ Bai Kelin