Beijing used to be covered with many water areas, with hundreds of bridges of all sizes. With the passage of time, some water areas may no longer exist, and some bridges have also disappeared. Thus, the ancient bridges that have survived today become more valuable. They are the embodiment of the wisdom of the ancient working people and also provide clues for people to understand the past history. Let's come close to the ancient bridges in Beijing and learn about the style of the Gaoliang Bridge, the Liuli River Great Bridge, the Yudai Bridge and the Seventeen Arches Bridge.

Gaoliang Bridge

Located at the Gaoliang River outside Xizhimen Gate in Beijing, the Gaoliang Bridge was built in the Yuan Dynasty and completed in the 29th year of the Yuan Dynasty. In order to meet the needs of water use in the capital and the transportation of grain from the south to the north, Emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty sent Guo Shoujing, the capital’s water supervisor, to collect the water from Changpingbai Fuquan and Xishan Yuquan, forming a waterway that flows through the moat, Jishuitan and Tonghui River. A high beam bridge was built over the waterway. For hundreds of years, Gaoliang Bridge has been repaired and transformed many times. The existing bridge was built in the Qing Dynasty. There are gates under the bridge, shipyards in the southwest and Qihong Hall in the northeast. Empress Cixi used to take a nap here and boarded a boat to the Summer Palace.

Liuli River Great Bridge

Located in the north of Liuli River Town, Fangshan District, Beijing, the Liuli River Great Bridge was built between the 18th and 25th years of Jiajing reign in the Ming Dynasty. The bridge is an unequal span stone arch bridge with 11 openings, with a total length of about 170 meters, a deck width of 11 meters and a height of 6 meters. It is the largest stone arch bridge in Fangshan District, second only to Lugou Bridge in scale. Historically, this ancient bridge is the link between the north and the south and has also backed busy traffic for a period. Today, people can see the ruts on the deck of it that have been left for hundreds of years. Some of these ruts are deep of more than ten centimeters, which are the traces formed by the perennial pressure of ancient iron axle cars.

Yudai Bridge

Yudai Bridge, built in the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, has a history of more than 200 years. It is a stone arch bridge mainly for ornamental purposes. It has a huge arc, a two-way curved bridge deck, and a beautiful curve and it is named Yudai Bridge because it looks like a jade belt. There are 38 steps on both sides of the bridge, with a slope of about 45 degrees. The bridge is about 10 meters above the water surface. The arch ring is very thin, and it is composed of white marble and bluish white stone. There is a couplet on the north and south sides of the huge arch bridge respectively, describing the night like fairyland scenery of Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace.

Seventeen Arches Bridge

The Seventeen Arches Bridge is a stone bridge on the Kunming Lake of the Summer Palace in Beijing. It was also built during the reign of Qianlong, connecting the east bank of Kunming Lake and Nanhu Island. There are seventeen round arched bridge openings on the main body, so it is named Seventeen Arch Bridge. This bridge is more than 150 meters long. Its shape is borrowed from Beijing Lugou Bridge and Suzhou Baodai Bridge. Looking from the side of the bridge, the shape of the bridge is like a rainbow lying on the blue waves, stretching and elegant. At the east and west ends of the bridge, there are also two stone carved monsters guarding the bridge fence. Every year, around the winter solstice, about one to two hours and fifteen minutes before sunset, the Seventeen Arch bridge will present a scene “golden light piercing arches”, which is spectacular and attracts a large number of tourists to take pictures.

Translator: SHI Meiling

Reviewer: ZHANG Ruochen