The sixth batch of China’s National Industrial Heritage Sites was recently released. Yangpu’s millennium old salt fields are the first industrial site in Hainan to be inscribed.

Still in use for culinary salts, a worker is busy making salt in the ancient salt pans at Yanding Village, Danzhou. (Photo: Hinews)

The volcano rock salt pans of Yangpu are located to the southeast of Yantian Village. Covering 18.74 hectares, they include mud drying yards, filtration ponds, brine storage ponds and salt drying troughs. As far back as the early part of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), workers originally from Putian in Fujian Province used local volcanic stone to build irrigation troughs and solar evaporation salt ponds.  

The special historical, technological, and cultural values which Yangpu's salt industry has brought to Hainan over the centuries were already listed as a national-level Intangible Cultural Heritage item. Now, this demonstration of the development of the ancient salt industry, and the site's continuing use for the production of edible sea salt have been recognized as part of the county's industrial heritage.

Danzhou Salt Fields (Photo: Hinews)

In order to ensure the preservation of its historical appearance and the inheritance of traditional salt-making technology, relevant local departments in Hainan will strengthen the protection of the ancient salt fields, and actively explore their utilization as a new element of industrial tourism in the Hainan Free Trade Port.