Xu Ning and her creative mooncakes. [Photo/Nantong Daily]

A 28-year-old designer has turned Nantong's architectural icons and intangible heritage into a line of creative mooncakes that have become an instant hit ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Xu Ning, a Nantong native who returned from Shanghai a decade ago to start a baking business, first experimented with the idea last year. Her initial batch featured eight designs — local landmarks such as the Bell Tower, Wenfeng Tower, and Zhang Jian Memorial Hall — and 1,000 sets sold out within days. This year, she said that the collection is set to include gardens, blue calico cloth, and kite motifs, creating a miniature panorama of the city's cultural landscape.

To cut costs and speed up production, Xu adopted generative AI for poster and pattern design after investing in training. But translating digital drafts into edible products remains tricky. "Color reproduction is the biggest difficulty," she said. Her team ran dozens of trials and scrapped many molds before settling on a peach‑skin pastry base. Each intricate mooncake still requires four to five minutes of hand‑filling by skilled artisans.

Xu insists on quality ingredients, using generous beef chunks and visible mango pulp despite higher costs. "If the quality isn't there, customers won't return," she said. The strategy has paid off. This year's 2,000 sets sold out immediately, and a co‑branded version now appears at the Langshan Mountain Scenic Area.

Orders come from local businesses, tourists, and especially Nantong natives living in other cities, who discover the products on social media. The success has drawn copycats, but Xu is already planning to cover all of Nantong's six counties and districts next year and is in talks with established local food brands to expand her culturally creative product line beyond mooncakes.

For Xu, the pastries are more than confectionery. "The core value lies in their social sharing appeal," she said. "When people receive the box, they take a photo and share it. That's countless free ads." She sees her work as a modest contribution: "Food becomes a medium, connecting homesickness, carrying local pride, and giving visitors a tangible memory of this place."