If you want really good salt, this is the place to find it.
This is Zigong, a town in Sichuan
historically known as the salt capital of the region.
It’s home to salt wells thousands of meters deep.
Salt makers here use a traditional method
that makes the purest salt possible.
There are only eight people left in town
who still know how to produce salt the old way.
This guy is one of them.
I’m one of the folks
that’s carrying on the Shenhai salt well tradition.
My name is Liu Linyi.
I’ve been in this line of work for 15 years.
We Zigong people have been eating salt
from Shenhai since we were kids.
The salt is handmade in a very natural way.
It’s perfect for pickles.
It prevents mold from growing.
So the pickles stay crispy and flavorful.
They have a long shelf life.
Over 2,000 years ago,
local folks discovered abundant sources of brine underground
But they could only dig shallow wells to produce salt manually.
As technology advanced, salt makers could go deeper.
This well is one of the world’s first ever
to be over 1,000 meters (0.62 miles) deep.
It was dug in the 1830s.
Similar wells began popping up after that,
and the salt industry began to thrive.
Zigong was once a treasured place
that was full of wealthy people.
In our heyday,
Shenhai Well infrastructure was standing all over this mountain.
We had over 100 wells.
Vapor would emerge when the brine boiled.
The mountain was surrounded by fog all day long.
It looked like fairytale land.
Since the 1950s,
salt production in Zigong slowed
as mass produced salt took over the market.
Today, only Shenhai Well is still in use.
So far, there are only eight people
who have taken over Shenhai Well.
And there are only eight pots left.
Each of us looks after our own pot.
Most young people won’t join this industry.
They can’t take the hard work.
Since 1835, workers have been working three shifts
so that production runs round the clock.
This morning I woke up at 5 a.m.
I left my place at 6 a.m.
It takes eight hours to produce one pot of salt.
Almost all of the work here is done by hand.
First, he pours the brine from the well
into a huge pot and boils it.
Next, he makes a soy solution by mixing soy powder with brine.
This will purify the salt.
Now we're going to filter this with gauze.
Soy milk has soy dregs so we have to filter the solution.
When the soy solution boils,
it’ll foam up and bring impurities to the surface.
We remove them by discarding the foam.
To remove more impurities,
we use a paddle to stir the brine
so the impurities float to the surface.
Then he adds some coarse salt.
The salt crystallizes more quickly this way.
It takes 5 hours for the salt to crystallize
as the water evaporates.
The salt may look good enough at this point.
But then Liu pours more brine on the salt.
This final step removes the last of impurities.
The salt is left to dry naturally.
Each salt maker can manage four pots
of salt in an eight-hour shift.
That’s about 400kg (881 lb) of salt in total.
The salt is packed into smaller bags.
400g of salt goes for $2.
It's tough work.
It’s hot in summer and cold in winter.
It’s especially tough in summer.
We’re standing in front of the stoves.
It’s close to 50°C (122°F).
We can only stand close to them for a moment.
It's unbearable.
Our job is really tough.
But it doesn’t mean we let people join our team that easily.
If an apprentice doesn’t qualify after half a year,
we’ll extend their probation to one year.
But if they still fail after that,
they lose their job.
We have very strict criteria.
You are off now?
Yes.
This is stir-fried pork liver.
You need to stir-fry this dish quickly
You just need a couple of seconds to cook this dish.
Salt is important to this dish.
You need to use the right proportion of salt and heat,
and cook it for the right amount of time.
You look happy.
Are you proud of yourself?
Of course.
As a Shenhai employee
and someone who’s carried on the salt-making tradition,
I am proud of myself.