China is one of the countries with the longest history of salt production in the world. According to legend, during the reign of Emperor Yan (Neolithic Age around 4000 BC), the wind and sand boiled the sea to get salt. Originated in Jiaozhou Bay, Shandong Peninsula, it is the originator of cooking seawater with fire to make salt. This method continued until the Ming and Qing dynasties, and gradually transitioned to the method of drying sea salt on the beach. The production of lake salt began at least 3,000 years ago in the Shang Dynasty, that is, the production method of artificial salt-drying in salt fields, and began in the boundary pool of Shanxi (now Yuncheng Salt Lake) during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The word "bittern" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Shang Dynasty is written as "※", which is an hieroglyph for making salt by drying bittern in artificial salt fields. The production of well salt began in the Qin Dynasty more than 2000 years ago. During the period from 256 BC to 25 BC1year when Li Bing was guarding Shu, salt mines in Shuangliu, Chengdu and other places in Sichuan were exploited and utilized. This drilling technology spread to western countries about 12 century ago, and made a contribution to world civilization. The production history of mineral salt (also called rock salt) in China is only a few hundred years. First of all, it is mined directly from the ground or underground. In the fifty-eighth year of Qingganlong (1793), inclined shaft mining began in Yunnan gypsum well. In the 18th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1892), the first rock salt well was drilled in Zigong, Sichuan. It is the embryonic form of drilling water-soluble mining method to extract and make salt after brine is dissolved by water injection. In addition, salt springs are widely exposed in Mangkang County, Yanjing County and other places in Tibet, and have been used for hundreds of years.

China is the first country in the world to dig natural gas wells and make salt from natural gas.

China has a long history of salt production. However, in old China, in order to increase the tax revenue of salt, the rulers of past dynasties mostly used monopoly to control the production and sale of salt with severe punishment, which hindered the development of salt industry. From the end of Qing Dynasty to the period of Northern Warlords' rule, the imperialists directly controlled the management right of China salt industry through the huge loans guaranteed by salt tax, and squeezed salt tax at will; During its invasion of China, Japanese imperialism occupied most of the coastal salt fields, brutally suppressed salt workers and plundered salt products. During the period of Kuomintang rule, bureaucratic capitalists strengthened their control over the production and sales of salt industry by means of monopoly, official transportation and dealer registration, and bought products at low prices and sold them at monopoly prices. In short, the long feudal society and semi-feudal and semi-colonial social system, coupled with imperialist aggression and exploitation, have left China's salt industry in a backward state for a long time, with unclear salt mine resources, crude and outdated equipment and manual operation. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), after more than 40 years' efforts, the geological research, general survey, exploration and salt-making industry of salt mines have developed rapidly. The people's government has taken a series of effective measures, which greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of all parties. With the in-depth evaluation of mineral resources such as oil and natural gas, a number of salt producing areas have been discovered one after another. After a lot of geological research and exploration work, by the end of 1996, China's proven NaCl reserves reached more than 400 billion tons. Since the first five-year plan, the salt industry has carried out capital construction and technological transformation in a planned way; A number of large and medium-sized saltworks (factories) such as Nanpu, Yangkou, Fuzhou Bay, Yinggehai, Zhangjiaba and Jilantai have been built, expanded and rebuilt; Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Henan and other provinces have ended the history of not producing salt; A new well, mine and salt production base has been formed in Yunying area of Hubei Province. At the end of 1996, the national salt production capacity reached 38.87 million tons, which was nearly 12 times higher than the 3 million tons at the end of 1950. Remarkable progress has been made in salt mining and salt production technology: the new crystallization process of new brine, suitable deep brine and suitable length has been summarized and popularized in Haiyan area, and some crystallization tanks have adopted plastic film covers; Yantian has basically achieved the requirements of "four concentration" of pumping, brine making, crystallization and agglomeration; The degree of mechanization and semi-mechanization of production has been greatly improved. Large and medium-sized lake salt field adopts combined salt mining machine or salt mining ship, combined with pipeline water transportation or light rail transportation, mechanized and semi-mechanized production replaces manual operation. The exploitation of underground brine mine has developed from single mining to gas lift, pumping unit-deep well pump and electric submersible brine pump. For ancient rock salt deposits, dry mining has developed to water mining, and the drilling water solution method in water mining has also been improved from single salvage method to single well convection method and multi-well connection method. Oil cushion method, air cushion method and hydraulic fracturing method have been successfully used to extract salt; Mining extremely low-grade rock salt deposits by chamber water solution method, instead of dry land; Using vacuum salt making method instead of frying salt in round pot and flat pot; In addition, the co-production technology of salt and nitrate was introduced into the salt production by hot-pressing evaporation and flash evaporation, which completely changed the face of salt production. A complete set of industrial systems including scientific research, teaching, geology, mining, design, scientific and technological information, drilling, brine extraction, measurement, salt making, salt chemical industry, power generation and machinery manufacturing have been established on the salt industry front, forming a salt industry scientific and technological team with strong technical force.

196 China produced 29.324 million tons of raw salt, of which 70.95% was sea salt, 7.85% was lake salt and 2 1.2% was well salt. The provinces (cities, districts) producing sea salt are Liaoning, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and Taiwan Province. The main production enterprises are Yingkou Yantian, Fuzhou Bay Yantian, Piziwo Chemical Plant and Jinzhou Yantian in Liaoning Province, Tanggu Yantian and Hangu Yantian in Tianjin, Nanbao Yantian, Huanghua Yantian and Daqing Yantian in Hebei Province, Yangkou Yantian and Chengkou Yantian in Shandong Province, Jiangsu Salt Industry Company in Hainan Province and Ying Ge Yantian. The main provinces (regions) producing lake salt are Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet. The main production enterprises are Jilantai saltworks in Inner Mongolia, Yabulai saltworks, Chaka saltworks in Qinghai, Keke saltworks, Xinjiang Salt Lake Chemical Plant, Qiquanhu Chemical Plant and Qijiaojing Chemical Plant. The provinces producing well mineral salt are Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Yunnan. The main production enterprises are Wutongqiao Salt Factory in Sichuan, Zhangjiaba Chemical Factory, Ziliujing Salt Factory, Dengguan Salt Factory, Daan Salt Factory, Changshan Salt Factory, Gongjing Salt Factory, Yipinglang Salt Factory in Yunnan, Li Xiang Salt Factory and Xiangheng Salt Factory in Hunan, Yingcheng Salt Factory in Hubei and Jiangxi Salt Factory in Jiangxi. Among them, Zigong salt industry in Sichuan has a long history, and it is the largest industrial production base of wells, mines and salts in China, and is known as the "salt capital".