南桥

This guide to South Bridge in Chengdu opens on a county magistrate in 1878 who used leftover funds from repairs on the ancient Dujiangyan irrigation works to build a wooden crossing over the Min River, and follows the disasters that repeatedly tore it apart, from a 1933 battle to a 1958 flash flood. You'll hear how each rebuilding left the bridge with its plain modern name and its tiered, glazed-tile roofline. It also traces the bridge's second life after dark, when dancers in hanfu perform old work songs once sung by river laborers hauling loads across the crossing.