【Haichuan Chemical Industry Site】The ancient town of Ningchang in Wuxi, which once accounted for a quarter of Sichuan’s salt production

The ancients were very clever; before the Jia Ding era of the Song dynasty (1208–1224), salt producers would connect the ends of bamboo tubes to create structures that were dozens or even hundreds of feet long, using these to carry brine to the cooking areas for processing. Yet it was still not possible to use such tubes to transport brine across rivers. Later, Kong Sizong from Yan Guan wove bamboo strips into ropes about the thickness of a bowl, which were placed at high points on both the north and south banks to serve as traction cables; this method was called “jiao bo fei du”. Bamboo strips connected end to end were then securely hung at an appropriate angle from these ropes, thus solving the problem of transporting saltwater across the river. This approach not only promoted the development of the salt industry but also greatly improved the level of pipeline transportation technology in ancient China. This method was used until the first half of 1959.

The modern imitation of “rope swing crossing””

The site of Workshop 3: The area occupied by the ruins of Workshop 3 is nearly 7,000 square meters. There are three buildings within this site, and the overall layout is well-preserved. However, the roofs of most of these buildings have collapsed, turning them into dangerous structures; in some cases, only the brick columns and the precarious wooden elements between them remain. The salt furnaces and salt pots are well-preserved, while other salt-making equipment such as the brine storage ponds is only partially intact; large areas of the site are covered with weeds.

“During the Tang Dynasty, it was one of the top ten salt supervision agencies in the whole country; during the Song Dynasty, the Danning Supervision Agency was established. It reached its peak during the Qianlong to Daoguang periods of the Qing Dynasty, with the salt produced there being sold in areas such as eastern Sichuan and Hubei. The small Ning Plant used to produce a quarter of all the salt in Sichuan province. ”Archaeologists from the Municipal Cultural Heritage Research Institute explained that salt merchants and traders traveled back and forth in this area constantly; salt workers carried passengers while traveling under open skies. The ancient salt route in Wuxi became a pathway for trade as well as a means of exchanging goods using salt.

Historically, there were two large-scale campaigns of \"Wu Salt to Help Chu\": one from the third year of Xianfeng’s reign (1853) to the 26th year of his reign (1876), and the other during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945). The Two Lakes region has always been a market for Huai salt. As the sources of Huai salt or the routes for transporting it came under control of the Taiping rebels or the Japanese army, the region was forced to switch to using Sichuan salt. During this period, Ningchang became the largest producer of salt for export in eastern Sichuan. Standing at the site of Workshop 3 of the salt factory, all that remains of the former salt production facilities are broken walls and ruins; column tops stand alone, and the salt-making pots are covered in rust. The scene of \"thousands of furnaces producing salt smoke\" has become part of history. With the rise of other salt production sites in eastern and southern Sichuan, industrial salt production gradually replaced traditional methods, leading to the decline and eventual closure of these salt factories.