Inside the glass cases of old pastry shops on Daxi Old Street, you often see round, thin cakes no thicker than a full moon — golden-hued, lightly crisp skin, with a filling of mashed sweet potato and sugar. This is the Daxi Moon Cake (Yueguang Bing) — a local treat not found in the mainstream Mid-Autumn mooncake tradition, yet passed down in Daxi for over a hundred years. It looks humble, but the first bite reveals the real craft of an old pastry house.
What is Daxi Moon Cake (Yueguang Bing)
Daxi Moon Cake is a traditional local treat unique to Daxi, round and thin like a full moon — hence the name yueguang bing, or "moonlight cake." The pastry shell is baked from flour, sugar, and oil, giving it a pale golden color; the filling is mashed sweet potato mixed with sugar, smooth and lightly sweet. Unlike Cantonese-style or mainstream Taiwanese mooncakes, which are rich in oil and sugar, Daxi Moon Cake is thin, dry, and understated — lower in both sweetness and fat content. It is a traditional treat best enjoyed slowly with tea. It is most common around the Mid-Autumn Festival but some long-standing pastry shops produce it year-round.
Why Daxi? During the Japanese colonial period, Daxi was already a hub for pastry shops in northern Taiwan; a thriving commercial scene drove the growth of the confectionery trade, and Moon Cake is a local treat that dates to that era — over a hundred years of continuous history. Old shops like Ho Zhen Siang Pastry still follow traditional methods. The sweet potato filling reflects the fact that sweet potatoes were a major crop in Daxi and the surrounding mountain areas in earlier times, making them an affordable and satisfying filling. Today the Old Street is lined with pastry shops; alongside Daxi Dried Tofu, Moon Cake is another distinctive local food identity — a collector's item among Taoyuan's old flavors.
How to Eat It the Local Way
Local Knowledge
Verified Credentials (ads filtered)
- Daxi Moon Cake is a traditional treat unique to Daxi, dating to the Japanese colonial period and named for its moon-like shape.
- Ho Zhen Siang Pastry and other long-established shops continue using traditional methods and are the recognized representatives of Daxi Moon Cake.
- Daxi Moon Cake is part of the Old Street pastry shop culture, listed alongside Daxi Dried Tofu as one of the main souvenir categories on the street.
Practical Tips
- Moon Cake production peaks around the Mid-Autumn Festival. On ordinary days, call ahead to check whether freshly made cakes are available.
- The dry, moderately sweet texture is not a flaw — it is the traditional character of this treat. Those accustomed to soft, moist modern mooncakes should adjust their expectations.
- Shelf life after purchase is short: about one week at room temperature, longer when refrigerated. Best consumed soon after buying.
Information compiled from Michelin Guide, Taoyuan City Government Tourism Bureau, and large-scale public reviews; sponsored content has been filtered out. Photos will be replaced with channel-exclusive material after Dio's on-site shoot.