By Yuling Chen, EDITOR

Chongqing, a prosperous and modern city in Southwest China, is dotted with historical and cultural elements.

Recently, an ancient bridge was discovered in downtown Chongqing of Jiulongpo District.

According to the preliminary research of the Jiulongpo District Cultural Relics Bureau, the bridge dates back to the late Ming and early Qing dynasties in the 17th Century. In well-preserved condition, it still serves as one of the main passages for the residents.

In Taojia Town and along the path by the Daxi River, walk for about 1.5 kilometers towards the downstream to You’ai Village and you will find this ancient bridge stretching across the river there. The level bridge made of stone slabs is 22 meters long, 1.2 meters wide, and 3.2 meters high.

The ancient bridge has nine piers, each of which was engraved with a dragon head and tail on the bottom. Moreover, all the nine stone dragons were carved from whole rocks. Among them, eight open mouths for water to flow in, while the mouth of one dragon is closed tightly.

Behind the lifelike and vivid sculptures in three-dimensional shapes, there is a story

According to Huang Ke, Director of the Culture Service Center of Taojia Town, “Story has it that a squire surnamed Huang sponsored the construction of the Jiulong (literally nine dragons) Bridge, to repay a debt of gratitude to fellow villagers. The bridge consists of nine piers and 10 apertures, with each pier carved with one dragon head, which represents the nine brothers of him. Among them, eight have open mouths while only the one representing the squire himself has its mouth closed. It stands for talking less but doing more.

To eliminate the impacts of the upstream water on the piers, the builder also piled up a row of retaining dam at the upper reaches about one meter away from the piers. Moreover, the dam lower than the bridge deck has 10 semicircular arcs, echoing each bridge aperture respectively. Weathering winds and rains over the past hundreds of years, the overall structure still has high safety performance proved by official inspection, so it remains to be one of the main passages for the residents.

The completely-preserved ancient bridge plays a significant role in studying the commodity circulation of rice, salt and mountain goods and the social and economic developments in Sichuan Province and Guizhou Province, both neighboring Chongqing.

Presently, the Jiulongpo Cultural Relics Management Institute is collecting data and researching the ancient bridge. The local departments of Taojia Town are also formulating relevant protection plans to make the ancient bridge better preserved.

Source: CQCB

 

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