Lighting the Way... to dinner.

I think most people know that this style of lantern is popular in China. Lanterns in Harbin have a specific meaning. They are hung outside of restaurants. As a general rule the more lanterns outside the better the food inside. Of course this is not always the case but the higher class restaurants always have a lot of lanterns. Most lanterns you see are red but there are also blue ones. These will be hung in front of restaurants that don't serve pork. They cater to the Chinese Muslim minority community in town. One of my favorite little 'chuanr' restaurants that's just around the corner has six of the blue lanterns hanging outside.

This particular lantern is hung in front of a very small restaurant near my school. It is a lonely little lantern. The restaurant serves chuanr and has maybe 4 tables. Definitely worthy of only one lantern.