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Wooden Arcade Bridges in Pingnan

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-04-06 14:07

The architectural skills behind the building of the bridge are original and smart and reflect the intelligence and craftsmanship of the Chinese ancient bridge builders.

These unique buildings, half-bridges half-houses resemble Bianshuihong Bridge in the painting “Riverside Scene at Tomb Sweeping Festival” created by Zhang Zeduan in the Song Dynasty. However, compared with Bianshuihong Bridge, the arcade bridges substituted Bianshuihong’s tying structure with a mortise and tenon structure, representing a vast improvement to the bridge building technology. Moreover, they also introduced the bridge houses.

In the middle of a bridge house, there is a corridor-type passageway with a width of above 2m. On the two sides, there are fixed long wooden stools.

The building date and the names of donors, bridge building directors, and bridge builders are recorded on the beams of the bridge house. In some bridges, very interesting and well-worded couplets were written, too.