Inside the Tiny Town Lighting Up All of China
In Hebei Province, Tuntou handcrafts 80% of China’s red lanterns, preserving ancient lantern-making traditions despite modern factory pressure.
In China, red lanterns can guide travelers to safety through cold winter streets, be a symbol of strength outside imperial halls, or, when hung in temples, invoke religious devotion.
They are also synonymous with Lunar New Year celebrations across the country and connect today's Chinese people to their ancestral culture.
Thinking about how many lanterns are hung here at any given time is like counting how many trees there are in the Amazon.
And yet, it is claimed that 80% of the country's lanterns are still made—by hand—in a small town in Hebei Province.
Walking through the dusty streets of Tuntu, you'll find evidence of lantern-making everywhere.
Looking through an open courtyard door, a small group of villagers can be seen sitting on stools, chatting and making lanterns, while on the main street, red lanterns are stacked one above the other.
It seems no one knows how many centuries ago this work began in this part of northern China, but if you were born in Tunou, you were immersed in lantern-making from a very young age.
"When you see others in your family doing it every day, you get used to it quickly," said one woman, adding that "children here can learn it from about 10 years old."
It seems strange that even in the age of high-tech production lines, this city maintains its hold on the lantern market using old-fashioned production techniques.
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When asked about this, an elderly lantern maker said it was because they could easily fulfill a variety of orders, no matter how small, and do it more cheaply than factories.
In the future, modern production may rival the handmade work of this village, offering a similar variety of options at competitive prices, but that hasn't happened yet.
But a challenge for Tuntu is that many young people are not happy with the lantern-making life, opting instead for the attractions and opportunities of urban life. This could mean a labor shortage in the coming years.
For now, though, it's China's Lantern City, and the people here are proud to be known as such.
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