Dayunhe Gongchen Bridge
Tall stone arch bridge with slender piers, spanning the water where the canal meets the old city.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Dayunhe Gongchen Bridge in Hangzhou follows Ding Bing, who poured his own fortune into rebuilding this crossing in 1885 after war left the previous bridge in ruins, right where the Grand Canal reaches Hangzhou after its long run from Beijing. You'll hear how his builders raised three stone arches on piers so slender they look ready to buckle, using a flex-under-load principle Chinese engineers discovered centuries before their European counterparts. Look for the four extra stone piers carved with snarling baxia, mythical sons of the dragon, set apart from the main arches to take the hits meant for them. In 2016, engineers sent divers beneath the bridge to check whether centuries of silt and scraping hulls had undermined the foundations.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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