Three immovable cultural relics in Fengtai District have been included in the second batch of Beijing's water conservancy heritage list.
Recently, the academic conference on the construction of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park, held at the Beijing International Convention Center, announced the second batch of Beijing's water conservancy heritage list, with a total of six sites. Among them, Fengtai District is the only one with 3 sites, which are the Jinzhongdu Watergate Site, Lugou Bridge, and Lotus Pond. These three places are not only precious water conservancy heritage but also have a long history and cultural accumulation, everywhere is a treasure, and now we will take you to enjoy the endless scenery!
Jinzhongdu Watergate Site
Jinzhongdu Watergate Site is located in Fengtai District. The site is 43.4 meters long, built across the southern wall of Jinzhong City with a wood and stone structure, and the water flows through the culvert from north to south through the city and into the moat.
Existing sites are mainly the floor paving stones of the water culvert, the remnants of both sides of the stone wall, the "pendulum hand" of the inlet, and so on. Jinzhongdu Watergate Site is the largest and most well-preserved ancient watergate site found in China, which was honored as one of the top ten archaeological discoveries of China in 1990. The site indicates the location of the southern city wall of Jinzhongdu, represents the construction of Jinzhongdu city and its craftsmanship level, and enriches the research content of ancient Chinese architecture. The site also confirms the flow direction of the water system in the Jinzhongdu city, providing important physical data for the study of the water system of the Jinzhongdu city.
Lugou Bridge
Lugou Bridge is located on the Yongding River west of Wanping City in Fengtai District, named after the crossing of the Lugou River (i.e. Yongding River), and is the oldest existing stone joint-arch bridge in Beijing. Lugou Bridge was first built in the 29th year of Jin Dading (1189), rebuilt in the 9th year of Ming Zhengtong (1444), destroyed by floods during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, and rebuilt in the 37th year of the Kangxi period (1698).
The bridge is 266.5 meters long and 9.3 meters wide, with 11 culvert openings. There are 281 columns on both sides of the bridge (the number varies on both sides), and 501 stone lions with different postures of different sizes are carved on the heads of the columns. In the pavilion on the east side of the bridge, there is a tablet written by the Qing dynasty’s emperor Qianlong called "Lu Gou Xiao Yue", which is one of the eight scenes of Yanjing. On July 7, 1937, the Japanese imperialists launched an attack here, and the Chinese garrison in Wanping City fought back. The "July 7 Incident" (also known as the "Lugou Bridge Incident") was the starting point of the Chinese nation's all-out war of resistance.
Lotus Pond
Lotus Pond is located at No. 48, South Lotus Pond Road, Taipingqiao Street, which was originally a lake and marshy area west of Jinzhongdu City, once known as West Lake, Taihu Lake or South River, commonly known as the Lotus Pond, and has a history of more than 3,000 years, which is an important relic and witness to the process of the development of the Beijing city.
Lotus Pond is the main source of water for the cities and palaces of Nanjing in the Liao Dynasty and Zhongdu in the Jin Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was used as a private villa. After dredging in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the water area reached 400,000 square meters, and the lake was reduced in the early 20th century for the planting of rice and lotus roots. In 1952, the Lianhua River was dredged and a new channel was excavated in the upper reaches. The Lianhua Pond became the rain-flood regulation reservoir in the western part of the city at that time, which could regulate more than 190,000 cubic meters of flood water. After repeated dredging and renovation, the current water area is about 150,000 square meters.
