自贡市

Why this place

Zigong drilled deep salt wells for two thousand years — the technology it developed for that is the ancestor of modern drilling — and it is now the country's lantern capital, with a winter festival of enormous illuminated structures that is genuinely spectacular.

What to see

• The Zigong Salt Industry History Museum, on the site of the old salt wells and derricks
• The Dinosaur Museum, with one of the richest Jurassic bone beds in the world
• The lantern festival in January and February — the reason most Chinese visitors come

What to eat

• Sichuan cooking with a local 'salt-help' flavour; Zigong is known for its 'shuizhu' beef and its rabbit dishes
• The local 'fushun' bean-curd and the spicy cold dishes

Best time

January–February for the lantern festival; March–May and September–November otherwise