Hainan Yangpu Ancient Salt Field is listed on China’s national industrial heritage list.
China recently announced the sixth batch of the national industrial heritage list, with the Yangpu Ancient Salt Field in Hainan selected. Here, tourists can witness the millennium-long history of salt production.
Yangpu Ancient Salt Field is located southeast of Yantian Village in Yangpu Economic Development Zone. It was founded in the Song Dynasty and has a history of more than 1200 years. It is known as the “living fossil” of ancient salt production methods.
The ancient salt field covers an area of 281.15 acres, including salt production facilities such as drying fields, filtration tanks, brine storage tanks, and drying salt tanks, as well as supporting facilities such as guide canals, reservoirs, salt rooms, and ancient salt channels. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, salt workers who migrated south from Putian, Fujian to the Yangpu Peninsula engaged in salt production. They used local volcanic rocks to chisel salt troughs, dig salt fields, and build salt ponds, pioneering the practice of “sun-dried salt production”.
The Yangpu Ancient Salt Field, with its unique historical, technological, cultural, and scenic value, has become a precious cultural heritage for the development of China’s salt industry. Its unique sea salt preparation techniques have been listed as a national intangible cultural heritage, and the related salt-making processes are the cornerstone of the sea salt industry.
If you liked this article why not read: The Graceful Dance of Cranes in Huangjian’s Wetlands.
