Zigong brings together three distinct cultural and historical themes: well salt extraction, lantern art and dinosaur research. When planning a trip, you can choose what to focus on based on which of these stories you would like to learn more about. There are also different perspectives within the subject of salt: relics of earlier work sit alongside an exhibition on the development of extraction technology.
Salt history: wells and a museum
Zigong has a history of well salt extraction dating back more than 2,000 years and is considered one of the world’s oldest cities with a tradition of well salt production. Shenhai Well is one of the most significant geosites in the UNESCO Global Geopark Zigong. Relics of shaft sinking, brine extraction and salt production have been preserved there. These three aspects show that the history of salt is not limited to extraction itself, but also encompasses the work of sinking the shaft and the production that followed.
The Zigong Salt Industry History Museum in the city centre, built in 1959, offers another perspective. Its permanent exhibition explores the history of the technology used for well salt extraction. The museum also includes West Qin Hall and its ancillary buildings; the hall is protected as a major national cultural relic. This offers two distinct ways to explore the subject: Shenhai Well focuses on preserved relics, while the museum examines the development of extraction technology. This distinction can help you choose if you want to explore a site’s material history separately from its technological development.
Lantern culture and festival tradition
The Chinese Lantern Museum is the only professional museum in China dedicated to lantern culture. It preserves and promotes this tradition. Its permanent exhibitions cover everything from the history of Chinese lantern culture and the Zigong Lantern Festival to lanterns recognised as intangible cultural heritage, Zigong lantern-making techniques and masterpieces of lantern art. The museum thus combines historical context with practical aspects of design and production.
The Zigong International Dinosaur Lantern Festival carries this tradition forward in an annual event, transforming the city with colourful lantern displays and cultural celebrations. The festival is rooted in a centuries-old tradition; its specific programme may vary from year to year. So if you want to plan your trip around the festival, check the dates for your preferred travel period. This keeps the museum’s enduring perspective and the time-specific festival as two clearly distinct ways to explore Zigong’s lantern culture.
Dinosaur history and the city’s cultural landscape
Dinosaur history adds another distinct dimension. Zigong Dinosaur Museum was China’s first specialised dinosaur museum and is one of the world’s three most important dinosaur fossil site museums. Its fossil specimens include nearly all known dinosaur species from the Jurassic period, which lasted from approximately 205 to 135 million years ago.
Another cultural reference in the city is the Fuxi River Historical and Cultural Corridor. It runs along the Fuxi River section between Ziliujing Datong Bridge and Shuiyaju Bridge in Zigong. Alongside the museums and lantern festival, the city thus also has a named corridor. Each theme offers a different focus: salt history leads to extraction and technology, the lantern museum to a vibrant artistic tradition, and the dinosaur museum to fossils and Earth’s history.
Whether you are mainly interested in the history of well salt extraction, lantern art or dinosaur fossils, these places and themes give your cultural trip a clear direction, without requiring you to give equal weight to every focus.
Discover more destinations: Guangyuan, Garzê, Chengdu, Panzhihua, Ziyang, Leshan, Liangshan, Deyang.
For the broader travel overview: Sichuan.
