Black Well: Boom Town of Salt in Yunnan

Situated in the western Yunnan, a province in southwestern China, Black Well was a boomtown where salt was produced for about 1,000 years. The town was surrounded by primitive forests stretching along mountains, intersected by rivers. The areas were full of streams and wells where salty water bubbles. Local people transported salt water and made salt out of mineral water. For centuries, Black Well was the number one taxpayer of the province.

Local annals show that salt mining started in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Anyone could have their hands on the liquid salt for benefit. During the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368), the government monopolized the salt production. In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), salt makers from the coastal areas moved in to make salt out of liquid salt. In the Ming and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, Black Well produced 67% and 50% of the aggregate provincial taxes respectively.

The town is situated on both sides of a river in a deep valley flanked by towering cliffs. In its culmination, the local population amounted to 30,000. Nowadays, the population remains at 17,000 of about 1,000 families.

As salt meant gold, no one in Black Well led a poor life. If you wanted to make some money, you could. It was most strenuous work to carry the liquid salt from the bottom of a well up to the ground and to carry the salt water all the way from the well to the workshop where salt water was boiled and salt was distilled. A carrier could support a family by working this job. Bootleggers could make money in illegal ways. It was said that if someone collected salt water from holes in the pockmarked roads, one could make some money and that if one dug away some dirt by a caldron that distilled salt, one could make money. There were numerous other ways to get salt. For hundreds of years people there led a life in which you did not have to worry if you did not mind working.

For hundreds of years, the salt business in Black Well was a governmental monopoly. The town never produced a business tycoon. In its recent history, oddly enough, the town produced many generals. In the years of the Republic of China (1911-1949) alone, Black Well produced six generals. In the Republican years, the town boasted a great number of temples of various religions. All of them went down during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Only a stone memorial archway has remained in honor of a widow. The archway withstood the destruction of the ten-year tumult.

The year 1933 marked the end of the glory of Black Well salt. For centuries, salt makers in town had followed a costly procedure to produce salt. The liquid salt must be carried all the way up from deep wells. All the salt water then must be boiled to get the final dry crystal. By the Republican period, all the woods in Black Well and neighboring regions had been cut off. Making salt became very costly. Meanwhile the cheap sea salt from coastal areas and the well salt from Sichuan Province undercut the market share of Black Well salt. In 1933, the local government built a tunnel to transport liquid salt from Black Well to Yipinglang, where coal was used to distill salt. The cost dived from 30 yuan for 50 km of salt to 60 cents per 50 km. A few years later, salt production at Yipinglang became standardized and industrialized. All the wells in Black Well became useless and production stopped abruptly. The glory stopped abruptly.

Pay a visit to Black Well today and you can find a town that relatively well preserves its past. Black Well became a town in the Yuan Dynasty. It never has any city wall, as it is situated in a valley with precipitous cliffs on both sides. The narrow and long town is crisscrossed by 4 streets and 16 lanes and there are six large courtyards. Reddish sandstone, which can be seen everywhere in the mountains and in the river, is used for all the architectures in town. The sandstone is also used for building tombs, roads, wells, temples, bathtubs.

It goes without saying that the old wells, workshops, ponds and terraces are the most attractive tourist attractions in Black Well today. They combine to tell tourists the story of how salt was once made in town.