What is a covered bridge?

The term "covered bridge" comes from a sad American novel and the movie adapted from this novel. A covered bridge is a bridge with houses. In China, bridges with wind and rain protection functions like this have various names. In the southwest, it is called "Wind and Rain Bridge" among the people; in Zhejiang and Fujian, it is called "Centipede Bridge", "Cuo Bridge", "Magpie Nest Bridge" and so on.

Reference: ctp/magazine/272/index

Xiaoqiao. Running water. People appreciate the ancient villages in Wuyuan, the most beautiful village in China, with clear water in front and green mountains in the back. There are small bridges, flowing water and people's homes everywhere. The simple folk customs and leisurely pastoral life are the reflection of Wuyuan, which is known as the most beautiful countryside in China. It is also the paradise that city people who work hard and work all day long long for in the fast-paced life. Wuyuan has a long history and culture. It is located in the northeast of Jiangxi Province, at the junction of Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. It was built in the 28th year of Kaiyuan of the Tang Dynasty (AD 740) and belongs to Qinzhou, Anhui. It has been placed under the jurisdiction of Jiangxi Province since May 1, 1949. The area under its jurisdiction reaches 2,947 square kilometers, with forest coverage accounting for 81.5% of the total area. Cultural sites are scattered throughout the countryside. Due to the long-term accumulation of history and culture, Huizhou's traditional customs and culture can still be preserved. The village is designed in the shape of a boat. Sixi Village is a famous ancient village in Wuyuan. It lies quietly in a mountain nest. Behind the ancient village, there are green mountains on three sides. The continuous green mountains extend into the village, and the houses with white walls and black tiles seem to be floating in the green ocean. A stream like a jade belt flows slowly in front of the village, gently embracing the ancient village. Tongji Bridge, a simple covered bridge paved with green tiles, lies across the stream. The bridge is made of fir wood, with no paint or carvings, making it look natural. At the head of the bridge, an ancient bluestone post road slowly stretches towards the distant mountains. The industrious village women are busy washing clothes and vegetables by the stream. Most of the villagers in Sixi Village are named Yu. In the late Qingyuan period of the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1199), when a village was built by the river, the village was named Sixi after taking the fish (Yu) from Sixi water, and the entire village was designed in the shape of a boat. . When we boarded the covered bridge, we saw a lot of people coming and going on the bridge. The long wooden rafters on both sides were filled with old people and village women with their children in twos and threes. They rested, chatted and played leisurely on the wooden rafters. It was so relaxing. The pier in the middle of the river is shaped like a sea ship. On the side of the ship's bow facing the water, there is a small eight-sided stone pillar. The pillar body is engraved with Buddha statues and scriptures. This arrangement is called "Tathagata Buddha Pillar". Derived from Buddhist sutra pillars, it can represent temples. Feng Shui believes that temples have a strong negative energy and should not be built in villages. However, if they are built at the entrance of water, they can "control evil spirits". "Baishou Flower Hall" contains Baishou Tusixi Village, which is famous for its exquisite carvings. The houses in the village are full of fine hand-made carvings. The carvings of Wuyuan folk houses are divided into brick carvings, stone carvings and wood carvings according to the materials. The main feature of the brick carving is the creation of a "Shang"-shaped door cover full of regional color. It is said that a beautiful door cover often requires thousands of processes. The main materials for stone carvings are blue-black Yixian black and green tea bluestone. The stone is used to build pillars and door walls of residential houses. To appreciate the exquisite wood carvings, you can visit the Baishouhua Hall, a famous ancient residence in the village. Baishouhua Hall was originally the guest hall of "Chengzhi Hall" and was built during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty. This guest house is very elegantly built and is the essence of Wuyuan residential architecture. The roof, eaves, verandahs, door pillars, etc. of the "Hundred Life Flower Hall" are all covered with carvings, both flat and three-dimensional. The most special thing is that in the middle of the ten screen doors, there are 96 "" without any fonts. "Shou", plus one on the horizontal panel of the middle door, two on the windows of the wing rooms, and one on the baseline of the house, just form the "hundred life picture". There are also carvings on the upper and lower parts of each door. It can be called "exquisite". Scholarly Generations: Most of Wuyuan's villages, which are rich in Jinshi, are built near the water and backed by mountains. However, there are not many villages with houses built on both sides of the stream. Likeng Village is an ancient village with houses built on both sides of the stream. Likeng Village is located 15 kilometers northeast of Wuyuan County and belongs to Qiukou Town. Its original name is "Litian". It was built in the third year of Dazhong Xiangfu in the Northern Song Dynasty (1010 AD). The village was founded by a man named Li Dong, who was a hermit and a former official from the fifth rank of Chaosan. After the village was built, it focused on education and cultivating talents.

According to the village genealogy, in the hundreds of years from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, there were 18 Jinshi in the village. In the second year of Qiandao in the Southern Song Dynasty (AD 1167), one was the number one scholar in martial arts. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, most villagers went out to do business and accumulated money and returned to their hometowns. In addition to the construction of residences, 12 large and small Song ancestral halls, 17 temple pavilions, 17 bridge pavilions, as well as academies, private schools, Wenfeng Pagodas, public gardens, etc. were built. The buildings are spectacular and known as " The first village in Wudong". There are more than 200 households in Likeng Village, with a population of more than 1,000, and most of them live on both sides of the creek. The main existing ancient residences include the former residence of Li Zhicheng, the champion of the Southern Song Dynasty, Dafudi, Miss Xiulou, Bronze Green Square, Sun and Moon Pond, Jiaoquan, Shenming Pavilion, Tongji Bridge, Fish Pond House, etc. Follow the winding Tianbian path along the Bay, pass by Wenchang Pavilion and the ancient temple beside the Weixiang Bridge, and then walk for about 20 minutes to Likeng Village. Ancient-style houses are built on both sides of the creek. Red lanterns are hung in front of the houses. Several wooden boats are parked next to the creek, and red lanterns are also hung on the boats. The houses are reflected in the water, intertwining into a beautiful Chinese painting. Climbing to the observation deck on the top of the mountain, you can overlook the rows of rooftops of the village houses, which is very spectacular. Walking around Likeng Village is like walking into a picture of "small bridges and flowing water with people's houses". The most beautiful covered bridge Painting a Rainbow Rainbow Bridge, known as the most beautiful covered bridge in China, is located about 400 meters away from the center of Tsinghua Town. The fir covered bridge is a major feature of Wuyuan. The covered bridge is also called a building bridge or a wind and rain bridge. Its advantage is that it can provide pedestrians with shelter from wind, rain and hot sun, and it can also protect the bridge body from wind and rain erosion. The Rainbow Bridge is a typical Wuyuan covered bridge. It is made of fir wood, without any oil paint or carvings. It displays its original and pure beauty in front of people. It is natural and simple, achieving the effect of "hibiscus emerging from clear water". The Rainbow Bridge was built in the Southern Song Dynasty and spans the Qinghua River. It was named after the Tang poem "Two waters hold a mirror, and a rainbow falls on the two bridges." It was once an important transportation artery between north and south. The bridge is 140 meters long and 6.5 meters wide, with four piers and five holes. Pavilions are built on the piers, and corridors are built on the bridge between the pavilions. The pavilions are slightly higher than the corridors. All are covered with green tiles and have wooden pillars. root. 11 corridors and pavilions of different heights are connected to form a rainbow, which is solid, simple and full of graceful beauty. There are railings and benches on both sides of the corridor for pedestrians to take a rest. There is a stone table and a stone table in the pavilion. Drinking tea and playing chess in the pavilion gives you an ancient feeling. The piers of the Rainbow Bridge are the most exquisite part of the entire ancient bridge. They are all made of bluestone and have a pointed front end, commonly known as the "swallow's mouth". The four bridge piers are like four swallows fluttering their wings and flying out of the bridge corridor, trying to soar into the sky. The "Swallow Mouth" pier has green grass and flowers, and there is a pavilion at the end of the pier. The construction of bridge piers depends on the situation, and the distances are not the same. The largest span is 12.8 meters, and the smallest span is 9.8 meters, a difference of 3 meters. This design may seem random, but is actually ingenious. It can resist floods and add beauty to the ancient bridge. The caves and strange rocks are everywhere. The Lingyan Cave Group consists of 36 caves, including Qingyun, Lianhua, Hanxu, Lingxu and Qiongzhi. Among them, Hanxu Cave is the most worth visiting. Hanxu Cave is located on the mountainside of Nanma Mountain in Tongyuanguan Village, Gutan Township, 60 kilometers northwest of Wuyuan County. It is 23 kilometers away from Qinghua Town. The entrance of the cave is 290 meters above sea level. The area inside the cave is 7,200 square meters. The tour length is 2,100 meters. It is divided into up and down. On the 7th floor, the lower you go, the emptier and more dangerous it becomes. The bottom floor is connected to the underground river, and you can take a boat out of the cave. Hanxu Cave is the most beautiful and richest cave among the Lingyan Cave Group. It is famous for its "dangerous caves, strange rocks, strange water, and fragrant ink." The most rare thing is that the cave still retains more than a thousand inscriptions by celebrities since the Tang and Song Dynasties. The stalactites in the cave are in various shapes and forms, making people dizzy and amazed. Travel Notes Transportation: Take a flight from Hong Kong, China to Nanchang, and then transfer to a bus to Wuyuan, which takes about 6 hours; or take a flight from Shenzhen to Quzhou or Jingdezhen, and then transfer to a bus to Wuyuan, which takes about 2 hours.

Accommodation: Jinniu Hotel (Samsung Hotel), located at No. 56, Wuyi Avenue, Chengbei Development Zone, Wuyuan County. Tel: 0793-7354327. Standard room: RMB 220. Jiangwan Hotel (a better Samsung hotel), located at Wenbo Road, Wuyuan County. Standard room: RMB 398 Tel: 0793-7343333 Fax: 0793-7350168 Entrance fee: RMB 10 for Sixi Village, RMB 15 for Likeng Village, RMB 15 for Rainbow Bridge, RMB 20 for Lingyan Cave Group Wuyuan’s four-color specialties: red (purse red carp), Green (Green Tea), Black (Longwei She Inkstone), White (Jiangwan Snow Pear) The Four Ancients of Wuyuan: Ming and Qing Ancient Buildings, Lingyan Ancient Cave Group, Ancient Trees, Ancient Culture Local Culture: Hui Opera (one of the origins of Peking Opera, In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, it evolved from the fusion of Southern Opera and Kunqu Opera.) Nuo dance (also known as ghost opera, a dance performed during ritual ceremonies, in which the dancers carry exaggerated wooden masks.)

Many. People are familiar with the term "covered bridge", which comes from a sad American novel and the movie adapted from this novel. A covered bridge is a bridge with houses. In China, bridges like this, which have the function of shielding from wind and rain, have various names. In the southwest, it is called "Wind and Rain Bridge" among the people; in Zhejiang and Fujian, it is called "Centipede Bridge", "Cuo Bridge", "Magpie Nest Bridge" and so on. In the rainy May of late spring, the author drove through the deep mountains and valleys in the border area of ??Zhejiang and Fujian, China, and traced the more than 200 beautiful ancient covered bridges there.

Covered bridges, also known as Hong Bridge, Centipede Bridge, etc., are covered bridges that can protect the bridges, provide shade from the sun and rain, and allow people to rest, communicate, and gather. There are mainly wooden arcade bridges, stone arcade bridges, wooden flat gallery bridges, wind and rain bridges, pavilion bridges, etc. Among them, wooden arcade bridges are distributed in the mountainous areas on the border between Fujian and Zhejiang, especially in Taishun, Zhejiang. Therefore, Taishun is known as the hometown of covered bridges. There are currently more than 200 wooden arcade bridges in existence. At the end of 2005, counties and cities such as Taishun, Qingyuan and Jingning in Zhejiang and Shouning, Pingnan and Fuding in Fujian jointly applied for covered bridges to the national preliminary list of world cultural heritage. In addition, the styles of covered bridges distributed in Europe (Central Europe) and North America are different from those in China, and each has its own characteristics, such as the Kapellbrücke (Kapellbrücke) in the small Swiss town of Lucerne. History Covered bridges have a history of more than 2,000 years in China, and there are records of "covered bridges" in the Han Dynasty. Hongqiao was popular in the Central Plains area during the Northern Song Dynasty, represented by Bianshui Hongqiao. But the Bianshui Hong Bridge only remains in the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" painted by the Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan. However, some experts believe that this Hongqiao technology still exists in the wooden arcade bridges on the border between Fujian and Zhejiang and has not been lost. [edit] Wooden arcade bridges Wooden arcade bridges are distributed in the mountainous areas on the border between Fujian and Zhejiang, including Taishun, Qingyuan, and Jingning in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, and Shouning, Pingnan, and Fuding in Ningde, Fujian. The existing wooden arcade bridges are More than 200 seats. Among them, Taishun County, Qingyuan County, Jingning County, and Shouning County are said to have been established during the Jingtai period of the Ming Dynasty to celebrate the emperor's birthday, and are collectively called "Jingtai Shouqing". There are differences in the appearance of covered bridges in various places. The covered bridges in Taishun and Jingning have narrow benches and semi-enclosed side panels; the benches in Qingyuan and Shouning are wide and can be used for sitting and lying. The board is fully enclosed, with various small windows opening for lighting. The wooden arch bridge is also called "wooden arch bridge" by scholars, and is called Centipede Bridge by locals in Taishun. Research on wooden arcade bridges began in the mid-20th century. In 1959, Mr. Luo Ying published "Chinese Bridge Historical Materials", which included Mr. Tang Huancheng's article on the Bianshui Hong Bridge. At that time, the academic community generally believed that the Hong Bridge technology had been lost. In the late 1970s, people "discovered" wooden arcade bridges in southern Zhejiang. Therefore, Mao Yisheng's "History of Ancient Bridge Technology in China" cited Taishun Xuezhai Bridge and Qingyuan's Zhukou Bridge as examples to prove that "the Beining Period" The Hongqiao technology popular in the Central Plains has not been lost," and has experienced many discussions since then. However, Professor Zhao Chen from the Department of Architecture of Nanjing University believes that wooden arcade bridges are a typical cultural heritage of mountain settlements. Professor Zhao Chen’s basis is that the border area between Zhejiang and Fujian has high mountains, deep streams, and many cliffs. Traveling is extremely inconvenient, so building roads and paving bridges have become the basic needs of local residents. Moreover, the local area is rich in fir trees, which provides a source of materials for wooden arch bridges. At the same time, it is located in a subtropical maritime monsoon climate zone with heavy rain in summer, which makes it necessary to add gallery houses and side panels to protect the wooden bridge body. At the same time, because of this, the covered bridge has become a center for local residents to communicate and gather.

Qingyuan Covered Bridge The covered bridge in Qingyuan is fully enclosed and has wide benches. In order to make the bridge deck stronger and more durable, it is mostly paved with cobblestones. There are existing Long Bridge, Lanxi Bridge, etc. Jingning Covered Bridge Jingning is a She Autonomous County. Jingning has a total of more than 50 wooden arch, wooden flat and stone arch bridges, including 6 wooden arch bridges. There are existing Dadi Bridges and Shouning Covered Bridges. According to statistics, there are 19 existing wooden arcade bridges in Shouning. The bridges were built from Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, Tongzhi, Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, to the Republic of China until 1967. In Kengdi Township, Shouning County, there lives Zheng Duojin, an old man over 70 years old who is the only one who knows the technology of building covered bridges. The Yangxitou Bridge built by Zheng Duojin in 1967 is considered to be the last wooden arcade bridge built in China. . Pingnan Covered Bridge According to statistics, there are 13 covered bridges in Pingnan. The Wan'an Bridge, built in the Song Dynasty, is nearly 100 meters long and is the longest wooden arch bridge in China. Fuding Covered Bridge The Old Man Bridge in Xiyang Village, Guanyang Town, Fuding City is the only covered bridge in Fuding City. The Old Man Bridge was built in the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. Fengyu Bridge Chengyang Bridge in Chengyang, Guangxi (2004-08-16) Fengyu Bridge is a representative of Dong architecture, also known as Fengshui Bridge, Flower Bridge, Liangqiao, etc. Distributed in Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, and Guangxi. Generally composed of bridges, towers and pavilions. Multi-story towers or pavilions are usually built on stone bridge piers, with the eaves corners of each floor being raised. There are gourds and thousand-year-old crane-shaped mascots on the top. The famous wind and rain bridge is Chengyang Bridge located on Linxi River in Sanjiang, Guangxi. Chengyang Bridge was built in 1916. It is a four-hole and five-pier outrigger wooden beam bridge. Pavilion Bridge Pavilion Bridge is a bridge with pavilions built on the bridge body. It is mainly distributed in the Jiangnan region of China, such as Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Suzhou and other cities. One of its representatives is the Yudai Qinghong (Yudai Bridge), one of the ten scenic spots of West Lake in Hangzhou. Yudai Qinghong is located to the west of Jinsha Harbor to the west of Sudi, opposite to Wangshan Bridge of Sudi. In addition, representatives of pavilion bridges include the Wuting Bridge in Slender West Lake in Yangzhou and the Xiao Feihong in the Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou. European Covered Bridge Kapellbrücke Kapellbrücke Kapellbrücke is located in the small Swiss town of Lucerne. It is 245 meters long and spans the Reuss River. It was built in 1333 and is the oldest covered wooden bridge in Europe. Because there was a church nearby when the bridge was built, it is also called the Church Bridge. There is an octagonal water tower (Wasserturm) in the center of the bridge, which was once used as a watchtower, prison and treasury, and is currently a guild hall. There are many religious and historical paintings on the horizontal eyebrow of the bridge. The Chapel Bridge was destroyed by a fire in 1993 and was later rebuilt realistically.