Qualla: Yongtong Bridge

Yongtong Bridge: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Siyuwj, CC BY-SA 4.0. Just outside the west gate of Zhao County, a modest stone bridge crosses what was once the Ye River -- now called the Qingshui River. Locals have long called it the Small Stone Bridge, a name that only makes sense in the shadow of its famous neighbor, the Anji Bridge, or Great Stone Bridge, a few kilometers to the south. But the Yongtong Bridge is no minor structure. It is an ancient single-hole circular arch bridge whose construction date was debated for centuries, until buried inscriptions finally settled the question.

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Image: Siyuwj | CC BY-SA 4.0

Yongtong Bridge: A Date Unearthed

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Siyuwj, CC BY-SA 4.0. For generations, scholars disagreed about when the Yongtong Bridge was built. One school of thought placed it in the Mingchang period of the Jin dynasty, between 1190 and 1196. Others argued for earlier origins. The debate persisted because no original documentation survived. The...

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Image: Siyuwj | CC BY-SA 4.0

Yongtong Bridge: The Little Sibling

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Siyuwj, CC BY-SA 4.0. Zhao County's identity is inseparable from its bridges. The Anji Bridge, completed in 605 AD, is the world's oldest open-spandrel segmental arch bridge and a designated International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The Yongtong Bridge, built roughly 160 years later, shares t...

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Image: Siyuwj | CC BY-SA 4.0

Yongtong Bridge: Crossing the Old River

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 木子弓长, CC BY-SA 4.0. The bridge spans the Qingshui River -- formerly the Ye River -- at the western approach to Zhao County's old town center. In the centuries when foot and cart traffic entered towns through formal gates, this bridge marked the threshold. Travelers arriving from the west would cross...

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Image: 木子弓长 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Yongtong Bridge: Stone Testimony

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ScareCriterion12, CC BY-SA 4.0. The 1986 discovery of inscriptions beneath the Yongtong Bridge was more than an academic footnote. It transformed understanding of the bridge-building tradition in Zhao County, revealing that the skills demonstrated so spectacularly by Li Chun at the Anji Bridge in 605 AD continu...

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Image: ScareCriterion12 | CC BY-SA 4.0