Zigong
Beyond salt, dinosaurs, and lanterns: a southern-Sichuan city still at work and at home.
Zigong is usually summed up in a phrase — “salt capital,” “home of dinosaurs,” “city of lanterns.” Each label is true, and each is too light. A city is never its slogans; it is the depth of a brine well, the rhythm of a workshop floor, the steam rising from a noodle shop at dawn, and the people who live among all of it.
What makes the place compelling is how many timescales rest on the same ground: a dinosaur bonebed from over a hundred million years ago, nearly two thousand years of well-salt, a kilometre-deep borehole drilled in the 1830s, a century of heavy industry, and the factories, markets, and streets still working today. None of these simply gave way to the next; they lie in layers, still coexisting.
This site tries to understand the city through the eyes of a curious, attentive observer — how its past shaped its present, and how its industry and daily life keep it alive. It is not a travel guide. It is a closer look.
Ways in
Heritage
From a Middle-Jurassic bonebed to a thousand years of well-salt and an 1830s kilometre-deep well — the city’s deep time.
Heritage →Culture
The Zigong lanterns: a festival, yes, but also a living craft and a civic identity.
Culture →Industry
From ancient drilling engineering to modern industry — a city that has always made its living by hand.
Industry →Everyday life
Fiery Salt-Gang cooking (盐帮菜), places for children, the rhythm of the market — the city as it is lived.
Everyday life →People & places
The shops, makers, and places that make up the living city.
People & places →