Festival lanterns were lit in the "pit yards" of Sanmenxia, central China's Henan province, on Jan. 9 to welcome the upcoming Spring Festival. The Shanzhou district of Sanmenxia holds an annual lantern fair, and this year a total of 153 sets of large lanterns will be exhibited.
These courtyard pits, a unique kind of underground cave-dwelling, are claimed to be the "world's only underground domestic architecture" by the local government. They were declared a national intangible cultural heritage in 2011.
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