I've been looking at Chinese sites that have the decorative boxes with the cushion protecting the cake. They are quite varied and more than just advertising. They can be placed on the mantle for additional aging and function like a small picture. Some have raised inscriptions on the beengcha similar to compressed black tea which I haven't seen in the Western market. The Western sites give you the impression it is an oddity.
Jim
Indeed many of the cakes are used for more than advertising, but usually the cakes that are compressed in such a way are never meant for consumption. It's very common in China to make something look more pretty so it can be sold or presented as an expensive gift in a nice box. Just make sure if you intend to buy such cakes, you aren't paying too terribly much for them. I recently have seen a huge proliferation of cakes featuring Chinese astrology characters (rat, snake, dragon, etc) and cartoon characters. The most famous, I suppose, would be cakes that look like Chinese chess pieces.
I have an excellent example of this. Yesterday I was bumming around the Fangcun market here in Guangzhou as I'm apt to do, and I was casually looking for some of the new crop of Xi Hu Longjing just to see their pricing; I found a decent shop that specialized in greens. This other guy came in and wanted to buy some lower quality longjing (eg.
150RMB for 500g) but asked the lady to put it in the nicest box in the shop to make it look cooler. The same thing goes for the Tie Guan Yin that you can buy in the small 7-10g bags. Just because the wrapper is nice, it doesn't mean you have a good tea.Anyway, the moral of the story is just don't pay too much for the nice box! heh.
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