Cixi Sea Salt

Cixi Sea Salt

　　“Opening the door to start the day, seven essentials come first: firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea.” This concise folk rhyme highlights the importance of these seemingly ordinary yet vital everyday items that are closely tied to people’s livelihoods and national affairs. Among them is salt. China has a long history of salt production, with vast and abundant salt-producing regions. Sea salt is one of the primary sources. Sea salt is obtained by boiling or evaporating seawater. Coastal areas in China have been producing sea salt since ancient times, as recorded in historical texts. Cixi is Zhejiang Province's most important sea salt production region, with a history of salt production spanning over 1,300 years. Cixi’s sea salt output has long ranked first across Zhejiang, and its main production area, Andong, is hailed as the “Salt Capital of Zhejiang.”

　　The Cixi Salt Fields are located on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay. They originated in the Tang Dynasty and had already reached a certain scale by the Song Dynasty. In the seventh year of the Qingli era (1047), coastal residents in Cixi built the first seawall, known as the Dagutang, and the salt fields were moved north of it. Historical records indicate that during the Song Dynasty, three salt fields—Longtou, Minghe, and Shiyian—had been established from east to west in Cixi. Among them, Shiyian and Minghe accounted for 64% of the total salt production from the seven major salt fields along the southern bank of the Qiantang River estuary, underscoring their significance. In terms of salt quality, the salt produced at these two fields was ranked the best. The "History of the Song Dynasty – Treatise on Food and Commodities, Part 4" states: “The seawater near Shiyian is salty, so even though bamboo trays are used, the salt remains particularly white.” Later, as the Qiantang River estuary shifted and the Hangzhou Bay coastline silted up, many salt fields were eventually abandoned. After the 13th century, the rate of silt deposition on the northern Sanbei Peninsula accelerated, and the operational areas of the Shiyian and Minghe salt fields gradually moved northward, eventually forming the Andong Salt Field.

　　The salt-making methods used at the Cixi salt fields went through three stages: boiling, plate solar evaporation, and tidal flat solar evaporation. From the Song Dynasty until the Xianfeng era of the Qing Dynasty, all salt was produced by scraping earth to extract brine and then boiling it over a fire. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), the plate solar evaporation method emerged, gradually reducing the use of boiled salt. Salt plates were the primary tools for solar salt production, made of fir wood, framed with wooden borders to hold the brine, featuring smooth surfaces, and sealed with putty at the seams to prevent leakage. By 1938, the number of salt plates at the Andong Salt Field had reached as high as 670,000, with an annual raw salt output of more than 100,000 tons, accounting for 40% of Zhejiang Province’s total raw salt production, solidifying its status as the largest salt field in Zhejiang.

　　Although salt plate solar evaporation represented a significant advancement over the primitive boiling method, labor intensity in the salt industry remained very high. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, salt-making technology continued to improve. In 1953, parts of the Andong Salt Field began experimenting with tidal flat solar evaporation and set up two experimental tidal flat sites. By the 1960s, tidal flat solar evaporation was widely adopted, freeing salt workers from strenuous physical labor. By 1967, the Andong Salt Field achieved a record-high annual yield of 230,000 tons of raw salt.

　　Historically, the salt produced at the Andong Salt Field not only supplied Zhejiang Province but also served Jiangsu, Shanghai, southern Anhui, and eastern Jiangxi. The fame of the “Salt Capital of Zhejiang” spread far and wide, becoming a source of pride for the people of Cixi.

　　In recent years, due to factors such as seawater desalination, some salt pans at the Andong Salt Field have been converted for agricultural use or transformed into fish ponds, leading to a gradual decline in raw salt output. Recently, relevant departments have begun researching the possibility of developing new salt pans on recently emerged coastal mudflats to revive the glory of the Salt Capital of Zhejiang. (Cixi)