China Pickle Museum

China Pickle Museum

The China Pickle Museum is located at the entrance of China Pickle City and is the first professional museum in China themed around pickles. It systematically interprets and promotes Chinese pickle culture and industry for the first time; the exhibition area spans over 2,000 square meters and is composed of sections including history and culture, production and processing, inheritance and innovation, products and brands, tasting and experience, quality and safety, as well as looking to the future. The entire museum embodies cultural and educational value, interactivity and experience, originality and artistry. It is a landmark exhibition hall for China's pickle industry.

China’s only professional museum themed around pickles — the China Pickle Museum — officially opened on July 16, 2012.

The China Pickle Museum is located within China Pickle City in Meishan, Sichuan Province. The exhibition area covers 2,000 square meters and consists of sections including history and culture, production and processing, inheritance and innovation, products and brands, tasting and experience, and looking to the future.

Exhibition Area Layout

1. Preface Hall: A thematic relief wall titled with ten characters in Su Dongpo’s calligraphy style reading “Three Thousand Years of Pickles, The Taste of the Chinese People,” is 30 meters long and 4 meters high. The mural is divided into four parts. The first part showcases Sichuan’s beautiful mountains and rivers — the Min Mountains stretching for thousands of miles and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System with a history of a thousand years, which nourish the fertile plains of the Chengdu Plain; the second part displays the ever-continuing vegetable farming scenes that have been passed down in Sichuan for millennia; the third part depicts ancient Sichuan people making pickles, with everyone pitching in and every household filled with the aroma of pickles; the fourth part reflects how pickles have become an inseparable part of our daily lives.

2. History and Culture Section: Introduces the 3,000-year development history of Chinese pickles. As early as 7,000 years ago during the Yangshao Culture period, our ancestors began cultivating and planting vegetables. The history of vegetable farming in Sichuan also spans over 4,000 years.

There are pottery jars from the Neolithic period, all used as vegetable containers or cooking vessels; there are also replica wooden farming tools from the Shang and Zhou dynasties: the “Si” (a kind of plow).

As early as the Shang and Zhou periods, ancient texts such as the Book of Songs, Shang Shu, and Zhou Li contain numerous historical records about pickles: archaeological and historical documents confirm that as early as 3,100 years ago during the reign of King Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty, the world’s earliest prototype of pickles — salted vegetables — appeared in China.

By the Qin and Han dynasties, Xu Shen’s Shuowen Jiezi explicitly defined “zu” as pickled vegetables. The character “zu” is also the world’s first dedicated term for pickles.

A 2,200-year-old pickle artifact, the only one unearthed in Changsha to date: fermented black soybeans with ginger.

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the renowned Chinese agricultural scientist Jia Sixie introduced in detail the processing methods for pickling vegetables in his book Qimin Yaoshu, providing one of the more standardized written accounts of pickle-making. It is recorded here that “sealing with mud for seven days will make it ready.” “Mud head” refers to sealing the container’s mouth with mud. This shows that people even then understood how to use anaerobic fermentation (i.e., facilitating lactic acid bacteria fermentation).

During the Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese pickles saw significant development, with various types emerging such as soy-sauce pickled, vinegar-pickled, and sugar-pickled vegetables. The Tang Dynasty Geographic Records mention: “Xingyuan Prefecture contributed summer garlic, winter bamboo shoots, and preserved melons.” Xingyuan Prefecture refers to today’s Hanzhong region.

The Song Dynasty’s Meng Yuanlao in his work Dongjing Meng Hua Lu and Lu You’s poem “Viewing the Vegetable Garden” both contain records of pickles.

Through long-term production practices, pickle-making techniques advanced significantly during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, with both processes and varieties greatly improved. Yuan Dynasty’s Han Yi in Yiyayi; Ming Dynasty’s Liu Ji in Duoneng Bishi; Ming Dynasty’s Kuang Yao in Bianmin Tuzuan; and during the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong era, Li Huannan from Luojiang, whose son Li Diaoyuan published the book Hanhai. Xingyuan Lu, all contain references to pickles.

In the Qing Dynasty, Yuan Mei’s book Suiyuan Shidan offers an even more detailed account: “Pickled winter greens and yellow sprout vegetables — when lightly salted they taste delicious, but when too salty they lose their appeal. However, if you want them to last long, salt is essential. Commonly, a large jar is pickled and opened after the dog days of summer… it has an exceptionally fragrant and delicious taste, white as jade.”

Pickles not only have a long history, but their culture is also profound and far-reaching. They are an important element of Chinese civilization. First, they are a key component of agrarian culture; second, they are an essential aspect of culinary culture; third, they are a fundamental element of folk culture.

Across the vast regions of China, various kinds of pickles are found, allowing visitors to experience the profound diversity and richness of pickle varieties.

A typical representative of Sichuan pickles: Dongpo Pickles. Over a thousand years ago, the literary giant Su Dongpo documented rules for pickle-making in his works “Vegetable Soup Fu” and “Poetry Discourse.” For a thousand years, people in Meizhou have followed his methods, producing pickles with excellent color, aroma, taste, and appearance, hailed as the best pickles in the world; in honor of Mr. Dongpo, they are also called “Dongpo Pickles.” These pickles have spread across the country and overseas along the paths of Su Dongpo’s official posts and travels.

3. Production and Processing Section: Mainly displays the main raw and auxiliary materials for pickles, as well as traditional and modern pickle processing techniques.

The display of pickle main ingredients selects typical representatives from root vegetables, stem vegetables, leafy vegetables, fruit vegetables, flower vegetables, and edible fungi; the auxiliary materials section displays six common types of auxiliary ingredients used in pickles.

Sand table models respectively showcase traditional and modern pickle production processes.

In the science display area, visitors can also observe the shapes of various lactic acid bacteria up close through a microscope.

4. Inheritance and Innovation Section: In the research process of pickles, scientists have developed many new types of pickles, including low-salt pickles, snack pickles, and other innovative products. Through research and development, key technological breakthroughs in the industrial production of pickles have been achieved. Among them, efficient and safe vegetable production technology, high-quality pickle production and processing key technologies, and efficient comprehensive utilization technology of pickle by-products are representative research achievements. China’s pickle research level is now among the best in the world.

5. Products and Brands Section: Displays hundreds of different types of pickle products produced by over 10 well-known pickle enterprises.

6. Tasting and Experience Section: In this section, visitors can taste various flavors of pickles and even try their hand at making pickles themselves.

7. Quality and Safety Section: Relevant departments have established strict standards for pickle production. These include the Sichuan Pickle Production Specifications and the Hygiene Standards for Pickled Vegetables, both formulated in 2010. These standards regulate every stage from field raw material management, production and packaging, storage and transportation, market wholesale, to retail. Full industrial chain quality traceability has been achieved.

8. Looking to the Future Section: This section displays many trophies, medals, and certificates that Sichuan pickles and Dongpo pickles have received throughout their development history, as well as the attention and care given to Dongpo pickles by leaders at all levels, from central to local government.