Huge visitor demand sees Zigong lantern festival extended

Lanterns feature the Eiffel Tower.[Photo by Huang Zhiling/chinadaily.com.cn]

Covering 13 hectares, this year's fair consisting of 110,000 lanterns has drawn French clowns to give performances and 3-D balloons from the United States.

The popularity of the fair has resulted in an unprecedented number of visitors to the Zigong Dinosaur Museum about 30 minutes' drive from the site and the Zigong Salt History Museum about 10 minutes' drive from the site.

The Zigong Dinosaur Museum, the first specialized dinosaur museum in Asia, was built at a dinosaur fossil site with 180 skeletons of 17 species more than 100 million years old, dating from the Jurassic Period.

Since opening 30 years ago, the museum has been attracting paleontologists, dinosaur enthusiasts and visitors from around the world. Millions have visited, said Li Yi, a manager in the museum.

Known as the salt capital of China, Zigong has a history of salt production dating back more than 2,000 years.

This fascinating history of salt-well production and its cultural, economic and environmental impact is told in chronological order at the museum.

Zigong produces 40 percent of China's well and rock salt. Visitors can see how workers boil brine in eight cauldrons to extract salt at a workshop in the Shenhai Well about 20 minutes' drive from the museum.

Drilled in 1835, Shenhai was the first well in the world to exceed a depth of 1,000 meters.

"The eight cauldrons produce 2,000 kilograms of salt a day," said Zhang Jinming, a 54-year-old who has worked at the well for 11 years.