Philadelphia Chinatown's Chinese Lantern Festival in Full Swing: Ticket Stubs Bring Discounts at Chinatown Shops as 'Panda Promotion' Links the Community
On October 25, the Chinese Lantern Festival in Philadelphia's Chinatown continued its run at Franklin Square, and the "Panda Promotion" tie-in run by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation was also under way. According to the Chinatown Development Corporation, during the lantern festival visitors can present a lantern-festival ticket stub or e-receipt to receive exclusive discounts and offers at participating Chinatown businesses, which are spread around Race Street, Arch Street, 9th Street, 10th Street and Cherry Street and include many Chinese restaurants, tea houses and shops — an effort to channel the lantern festival's crowds toward Chinatown's everyday businesses. The corporation's monthly newsletter also mentioned that it is supporting small and medium businesses along the Chinatown commercial corridor, and that events such as the lantern festival and night markets are Chinatown's most important traffic drivers of the year. For Philadelphia's Chinese community, the lantern festival is more than a light show — it is how Chinatown businesses band together in the busy autumn season: only when visitors, after seeing the lights, walk into Chinatown to eat and shop does the community's vitality truly remain.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 费城富兰克林广场（中国灯笼节举办地），Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0
