Anshun Bridge
Three-arch stone footbridge over the Jin River, rebuilt repeatedly after centuries of floods.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Anshun Bridge in Chengdu opens with Marco Polo pausing on a market-crowded wooden bridge across the Jin River in the 1300s, and follows the long run of floods that kept undoing whatever stood in its place. You'll hear how eighteenth-century officials named the rebuilt crossing Anshun, meaning safe passage, only for the river to answer back again and again, including a 1947 flood that swept the deck away and left bare stone piers standing alone for decades. It picks the story back up with a 1970s rebuild and the engineers who later decided timber decks were done for good. Look for the carved water-beast statues still set into the piers, guardians from an older bridge than the one you're standing on.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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