Yanjing Town in Tibet, salt fields on the 'Roof of the World'

Yanjing Town (officially called Naximinzu Town) is an ancient town in Mangkang County in Tibet Autonomous Region, on the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. This town was the first stop on the ancient Tea Horse Road from southwest Yunnan to Tibet, which has a 1,300-year history of salt production.

Salt mining has always been a main industry in Yanjing. The traditional wind-drying method is still practiced here today. There are more than 300 salt producing farmers in three towns in Mangkang County whom work on about 3,000 salt fields. These primitive production methods by hand, however, keep the production volume low.

It is the long hours of sunshine and rich wind resources that engendered the Yanjing natural wind drying method of salt collection. Farmers first fetched water from the salt wells by the Lancang River, and transported it to their homes in wooden barrels where it was emptied into the saltwater ponds in their courtyards. After letting the brine concentrate, it would then be poured into a salt field where the water evaporated in the hot sun, leaving the salt residue.

The salt produced on two banks of Lancang River is different. East bank produces white salt with high quality but limited in amount; west bank produces red salt with lower quality in higher output. So white salt is used as a food ingredient, while the red salt is used to boil tea or feed livestock. In the past, people would take salt to Yunnan and Sichuan and barter it for production tools and daily necessities.

In 2009, the thousand-year-old salt fields in Yanjing are announced as a cultural relic site protected at the regional level in Tibet. The salt producing technique in Mangkang has been listed in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage.

Geographical Location

Mangkang County is 1,280 km from Lhasa, capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region; 950 km from Chengdu, provincial capital of Sichuan; 450 km from the prefecture of Qamdo; 260 km from the world's highest altitude Bangda Airport; and 400 km from the well-known tourism destination Shangri-La in Yunnan Province.

Transportation

The Sichuan-Tibet National Highway 318 and Yunnan-Tibet National Highway 214 converge in Mangkang County, and there are many stops on long-distance coach routes at both Mangkang and Yanjing. Transportation to the area is not convenient and is a long journey with bumpy roads. There are about two flights to Bangda Airport from Chengdu and Lhasa every week, depending on the (changeable) weather.