Value of the Industrial relics from the Modern era, shown by the Salt warehouses and Auxiliary facilities of the Sorae Salt field

The Sorae Salt field, of which the construction began on June 10<SUP>th</SUP>, 1934 and completed on May 31<SUP>st</SUP>, 1937, was created by the Imperial Japanese Joseon Governor General office’s so-called “Phase-4 Expansion plan regarding the Sun-dried(“Cheonil”) salt fields.” This plan included sub-plans to secure an in-Joseon self-sufficiency in terms of edible salt, as well as increased salt production meant for industrial use, such as raw salt for the chemical industry. As a result, the Sorae Salt field featured technological innovations and in-house salter techniques that were quite different from other sun-dried salt fields that had been established in earlier periods.<br/> The most visible characteristic of the salt farms that have been newly created since the declaration of the phase-4 plan was that most of them were designed to be built in highland(高地式) areas. They were all created in places higher than the sea level, which meant there was lesser need or cost required in establishing embankment facilities that would have been otherwise necessary to make them less vulnerable to disasters. These salt fields also marked a departure from previous ones as they were designed to use electricity.<br/> In the Sorae Salt field, there were 80 salt warehouses which were in charge of the last step in salt creation. Including 2 major storage facilities in front of the Sorae station, there were 19 units in Section 1, 31 units in Section 2, and 28 units in Section 3. Unfortunately, only 4 units located in the present day’s Sorae Swamp Ecological park, and 2 other units within also today’s Shiheung Gaetgol Ecological park, are the only ones we still have. One of them was constructed in May 1936, and remains the oldest one among all the salt facilities affiliated with sun-dried salt fields in South Korea today. Sun-dried salt fields are indeed a cultural legacy that not only the Korean people but the entire world as well could appreciate, while salt facilities constitute a definite representation of that legacy.