Over the past few weeks, massive displays of small cakes covered in elaborate pastry designs have popped up in several shops and cafes across China. These pretty pastries are an Asian specialty called moon cakes, and appear every year in the run up to the Lunar Festival, which this year falls on 25th September. The Lunar Festival, also known as the Mid Autumn Festival or the Moon Cake Festival, is China’s Harvest Festival that has been compared to Thanksgiving Day in America. Traditionally it is a time for families to gather together and be reunited as a whole again, just as the full moon in the sky is whole.

Chinese food has a real international presence. Not many other countries boast restaurants with their national food across every continent, from Aberdeen to Ulan Bator. All the same, a trip to a Chinese restaurant that is actually in China has quite a unique etiquette, which even those who have been to several Chinese restaurants in their home country might not be familiar with.