The area of Zigong has a long history in ancient China - with the invention and development of "Percussion Drilling rig" being one of the city's accomplishments.

Zigong is host to the Sichuan University of Science and Engineering as well as a new High Technology Zone.

Since natural gas didn't have the uses it does today, it was channeled into pipes and primarily used onsite to boil the brine and extract the salt.

The people of Zigong believe its taste to be superior to the popular French sea salts such as Fleur de sel.

Zigong is located in the central Chinese Sichuan province, which was a large basin, surrounded by mountains on three sides and therefore somewhat isolated.

Because of the factors mentioned above (war, wells drying up, and a rebellion) Zigong became a significant supplier of salt to the Sichuan province up until the 1930s.

The Shenhai Well (Bore depth: 1,001.4 meters/4,400 feet) still operates using the older manual methods of pumping and boiling.

Today, Zigong is a primary source for natural gas, coal, and inorganic chemical production in addition to salt.

Although the region has rich history into antiquity, the prefecture-level city called "Zigong" is a modern name.

Zigong has long been renowned as "Salt City" for its brine extraction techniques and the attendant salt-related culture.

[citation needed] In ancient China, salt was regarded as the energy for body and valued higher even than gold.

Because of the unique and intact bone remains, Zigong has ever since been attracting paleontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts from around the world.

Zigong is the originator of the Chinese Lantern Festival - which has been copied in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

As one of the Historical and Cultural Cities of China, Zigong is called "Lantern Town in the South Kingdom".

In recent years, although the annual lantern show forces the local residents to endure unpredictable and extended blackouts during China's Spring Festival, the lantern festival is a boon for tourism in the remote but tranquil city and generates large revenues for the local government.

The Wangye Miao Teahouse was popular during the height of the salt trade and still stands along a bend in the Fuxi River - which runs through the center of Zigong.

However, the original purpose of the teahouse was the assembly hall for shipping merchants and was called Wangye Miao Temple.

At the end of the street is a hand rowed ferry boat that takes a visitor to the opposite shore where stone steps led up into the city.

Among them the most famous individuals are Wu Yuzhang, Gao Min, Liu Guangdi, Jiang Zhujun.

Indeed, in 1993, Zigong officials began to seize more than 2,500 acres of farm land, on which 30,000 farmers had lived for generations.

The farmers were offered small living stipends and what they considered inadequate compensation, so they refuse to relocate and organised sit-ins.

Ziliugong (once known as Silver City) is the ancestral home of the Beijing born novelist Li Rui.