Sun Yabing shows off his handmade mooncake. [Photo/Nantong Daily]

Seventy-two-year-old baker Sun Yabing has been hand‑making traditional mooncakes for more than four decades in Qidong, a county-level city in Nantong.

As the Mid‑Autumn Festival approaches, his small workshop fills with the aroma of roasted pastry and draws a steady stream of loyal customers, many of whom have been buying from him for years.

Sun specializes in Suzhou‑style and Cantonese‑style mooncakes, with fillings ranging from red bean paste and sesame to mixed nuts and salted pepper.

His bestselling variety is the red bean paste. Made with locally grown beans, hand‑rolled dough, and traditional baking methods, it has a flaky, layered crust and a dark, glossy filling that gives off a rich fragrance. Sun insists that only local red beans can deliver that distinctive flavor, and only hand‑crafting can produce the perfect pastry texture.

Despite his age, Sun shows no signs of stopping. During the peak season, he produces 3,000 to 4,000 mooncakes a day, and up to 90 percent of his products are bought by repeat customers who come directly to his shop. He does no online marketing or video promotion — his reputation travels entirely by word of mouth.

His workshop also turns out crispy biscuits and bulk red bean paste, both of which have their own local following. For fresh meat and fruit‑filled mooncakes, he only makes them on batch orders, as they require stricter freshness control.

Sun admits he has thought about retiring, but the yearly demand from longtime customers keeps him going. "Food is a matter of conscience," he said. For his community, his mooncakes are more than holiday treats; they are a taste of memory, tradition, and home.