A sales promotion for the first online Yangcheng Lake crabs culture festival is taking place on JD.com, a major Chinese online retailer.

The promotion provides a special "buy one get one free" offer for crab gift cards, which has received a warm welcome from customers. The number of daily hits on the website has already topped 400,000.

Yangcheng Lake crabs from Bacheng town, Kunshan, Jiangsu province, are reputed to have the best taste among all varieties of hairy crabs. This year, the breeding area of crabs in Bacheng amounted to 28,264 mu (1,884.27 hectares). The crab output is expected to reach 2,215 tons, an increase of 20 percent from last year. Prices will be a little higher compared to last year.

Mid-autumn Festival used to be the harvest time for Yangcheng Lake crabs, which were an essential dish for Kunshan residents during the festival. However, the festival comes a little earlier this year. So only a small number of crabs will hit the market during the Mid-autumn Festival but they will be widely available in late September.