On Thursday, Ms. B, one of the Chinese staff in our office got a phone call asking her to go to the main gate of the school to receive a delivery of gifts for Mid-Autumn Festival. The caller was a representative from the printing company we worked with this past summer.

“Bring a large cart with you to the gate,” he instructed. “I have 16 boxes.”

She obeyed, thinking that she would be picking up 16 boxes of moon cakes.

She was wrong. There were 4 sets of 4 boxes. In other words, there were 4 people in the office (fortunately I was not one of them ) who were each to get 4 boxes of goodies.

And here’s the interesting part….not one of the boxes had any moon cakes. The printer had decided to buck tradition and send gift boxes of other stuff instead.

Box Number One: Preserved Duck Eggs

Box Number 2: Preserved dates

Box Number Three: Jars of Sesame Oil

Box Number 4: Donkey Meat (yes, the printer is from Hebei)

Suddenly, moon cakes are sounding pretty good.