On December 11, 2008, archaeologists from Peking University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Shandong Province investigated the site of a 3000-year-old Shang Dynasty salt workshop. [Wu Zengxiang/Xinhua]

On December 11, 2008, archaeologists from Peking University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Shandong Province jointly investigated the site of a 3000-year old Shang Dynasty salt workshop.

More than 30 sites relating to small-scale Shang and Zhou Dynasty salt workshops had previously been discovered in April at Shuang Wang Cheng reservoir site in Shouguang City, in east China's Shandong Province. Now, the sites of two of large-scale Shang Dynasty salt workshops and ten ancient salt making tools have been found in an area extending over 4000 square meters. Several brine pits and evaporation tanks, and two large kitchen ranges for the boiling-off of salt have also been excavated.

Professor Li Shuicheng from Peking University is an expert in this particular field. He said that the discovery of two such large salt-producing workshops in one small area is unprecedented in China.