Founded in Guangzhou in 1889, Lian Xiang Lou is a nationally recognized name in China pastries and mooncakes. Its reputation reaches well beyond southern China: generations of consumers across the country know the brand for its lotus seed paste and Cantonese mooncakes, while many overseas Chinese communities regard its familiar flavours as part of a shared cultural memory. Internationally, the name may also appear as Lianxianglou. With more than 130 years of history, the brand’s journey from traditional fire-fed ovens to modern production reflects a much broader chapter in the development of Chinese bakery culture.
Its traditional Cantonese mooncake-making technique is listed as provincial intangible cultural heritage in Guangdong. That makes the company more than a long-running business. Its history offers a useful view of how a Chinese bakery moved from a craft-led bake room to modern food production, and how the wider China bakery sector has changed with it.
The recipes could be handed down, but the production environment could not stand still. In the old bake room, colour and doneness depended heavily on the person beside the fire. In a modern plant, the oven must work with forming, cooling, conveying and packing, while meeting stricter expectations for food safety, capacity and batch consistency. The development of Lian Xiang Lou’s ovens connects those two worlds.
Before Timers and Digital Controls Mooncake Baking Oven
Before timers, digital controls and circulating hot air, how to bake mooncake? the baker himself was the most important instrument in the room. Early ovens were built from brick and fired with wood and coal. More than ten shallow iron trays could be baking at once, yet the temperature was never identical in every corner.
The baker used a long wooden paddle to lift and reposition the trays, watching the surface colour and remembering where each one had been. A few moments too long near the stronger fire could darken a batch; moving another tray too early could leave it short of the right bake.
In a public interview, a veteran pastry chef who had worked at Lian Xiang Lou for more than forty years recalled seeing his father’s generation bake this way. One worker might watch around eighteen trays without a timer or preset program. He had to read the fire, judge the pastry and carry an invisible heat map of the oven in his head.
That knowledge was valuable, but it also made results heavily dependent on individual experience. As production grew, the question was no longer only how to bake a good tray. It was how to bake mooncake products with a familiar colour, texture and flavour across larger and more frequent batches.
When the Bakery Oven Began to Rotating
Electric ovens and rotary oven systems gradually changed the rhythm of the bake room. Instead of moving every tray by hand, a rack could rotate inside the oven chamber, giving the bakery products more regular exposure to the circulating heat. Timers and temperature instruments made the process easier to monitor and repeat.
This did not remove the baker’s judgement. Dough condition, filling moisture, product size and final colour still mattered. The baking machine took over work that was repetitive, heavy and suitable for standardization. The baker’s experience could then be translated into settings for temperature, time, airflow and loading – parameters that could be recorded, tested and used again.
From the Old Bake Room to Shawan Bakery Factroy
The transition did not happen in a single leap. Public interviews describe a gradual move toward more standardized and mechanized production from the 1980s onward. For a company whose flavours were already familiar to customers, modernization was not simply a matter of making more. The harder task was to raise output without losing the appearance, texture and baking character by which its products were known.
By the time the Shawan baking production base in Guangzhou entered operation, the setting was far removed from the old brick oven. Media reports describe a site of about 50,000 square metres with advanced automated bakery equipment. Public company information also refers to multiple fully equipped automated bakery food production lines for mooncakes, fillings and other Chinese pastries, together with multi-stage inspection and controls covering raw materials and production.
A modern mooncake factory depends on the whole system working together. Dough Mixing,Dough forming, baking, cooling, conveying and packing must share a workable pace. On a moon cake production line, an Bakery oven is central, but it never works alone. Its capacity has to match the forming process before it and the cooling or packing process after it. For any team planning a moon cake factory, line balance matters as much as the output of a single bakery machine.
A Limited Role in One Production Line
R&M Machinery’s cooperation with Lian Xiang Lou took place in 2019. As the baking equipment configuration at the Shawan production base was being developed, R&M was fortunate to participate as one of several food equipment suppliers, contributing equipment to selected stages of one production line. According to R&M’s sales and delivery records, the supplied equipment included rotary rack ovens, Industrial tunnel oven, industrial dough mixer machine and a heavy duty Commercial dough sheeter for large batch bakery production. Together, this china pastry equipment supported parts of the dough preparation and baking process.
The Shawan production base operates multiple fully equipped automated baking lines for mooncakes, fillings and other pastries. A production system of this scale depends on equipment across many stages, as well as close coordination among several specialist suppliers. R&M is honoured to have contributed as one of those suppliers, with our equipment serving a practical role on one of the lines. Within the wider facility, our contribution covered only selected equipment for part of the production process. Even so, the opportunity to support the modern production of a brand with more than 130 years of history is one we value greatly.
What the Story Means for Modern Bakeries？
Earlier bakers managed uneven heat by moving trays. A Industrial rotary oven addresses the same production problem through controlled airflow and rack rotation. A food tunnel oven uses continuous conveying and managed baking zones to support a stable production rhythm. The baking tools have changed, but the underlying question remains the same: how can every piece receive the right heat for the right amount of time?
No oven is right for every product. The Commercial Rotary ovens often suit batch production, recipe changes and rack-based handling. The Tunnel ovens are commonly considered for continuous, higher-volume output with a stable baking curve. The decision should begin with the product – its formula, size, moisture, loading pattern, target colour, hourly output and connection to the rest of the line.
For overseas buyers comparing Chinese bakery equipment, this is the practical lesson. A mooncake machine should not be selected only for its stand-alone speed, and mooncake equipment should not be judged apart from the process around it. The same principle applies across China pastry production: consistency comes from matching the equipment to the product, setting a sound process and giving operators clear control over that process.
More than a century separates the old fire-fed oven from today’s controlled baking systems. Good equipment does not replace craft. It gives proven craft a more dependable way to continue – from one batch to the next, and from one generation to another.
Lian Xiang Lou has endured for more than a century not simply by preserving the flavours its customers know, but by continuing to listen to what those customers expect and by holding itself to demanding standards in food safety, consistency and product experience. As baking technology has advanced, the company has continued to improve its equipment and processes without allowing modernization to erase the character of its products. For R&M, being trusted to contribute in a limited role as one equipment supplier is something we value deeply. Lian Xiang Lou’s ability to respect tradition, maintain high standards and move with the times is a large part of why the brand continues to earn recognition across generations.
Media and Public Information Sources
Source note: This article is an independent R&M Machinery narrative based on public media reports, government information, Lian Xiang Lou’s public materials and public interviews. It paraphrases the relevant information and does not reproduce extended passages or interview wording. It should not be read as an official endorsement of R&M by Lian Xiang Lou. The 2019 cooperation date and supplied-equipment scope are supported separately by R&M Machinery’s own sales and delivery records.
- China Overseas Chinese Network / China News Service, 23 July 2022 — Background on the 1889 founding, more than 130 years of history, Cantonese mooncake craft and the Shawan production base. View media report
- China Food Safety News, 29 May 2023 — Background on lotus seed paste mooncakes, Cantonese mooncake craft and the provincial intangible cultural heritage context. View industry media report
- Liwan District Government, Guangzhou — Public information used to cross-check the founding year and company history. View government source
- Sohu historical feature, 5 January 2018 — A feature drawing on Guangzhou historical records and oral accounts, used for background on wood- and coal-fired brick ovens, manual tray movement and later electric or rotating ovens. View media source
- Lian Xiang Lou official website — Public company information on history, products, production lines and quality controls. View official website
- Public interview with a veteran Lian Xiang Lou pastry chef — Recollections from a pastry chef with more than forty years of service, used only as paraphrased background on manual baking and the move to rotating systems. The interviewee is not named in this article. View public interview
- R&M Machinery sales and delivery records — Basis for the 2019 cooperation date and the limited scope involving rotary rack ovens, a tunnel oven, an industrial dough mixer machine and a heavy duty dough sheeter for bakery production on part of one production line. Company website
