Wooden-arched Corridor Bridge

Pingnan is well-known as the hometown of ancient corridor bridges in China. There, we can see grand and magnificent stone and wooden-structure corridors across mountain streams and rivers, rendering a rainbow-like scene. The first wooden-arched corridor bridge in Pingnan was built in the Song Dynasty and represents a traditional folk construction technology in Pingnan. The technological process includes bridge address selection, bridge construction, level measuring, and water column and gate construction. The construction technology of wooden-arched corridor bridges in Pingnan symbolizes an outstanding representative of China's rainbow bridge construction. Keeping constant innovation and development in the historical inheritance course, traditional unique process characteristics of eastern Fujian have been developed. Further, the public culture property featured by eastern Fujian styles has made such bridges bear extremely valuable traditional process value. The traditional carpenter techniques of wooden-arched bridges have been included in the List of National Nonmaterial Cultural Heritage.

Qiancheng Bridge, built during the reign of Emperor Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty, 62.7m long, has one pier and two apertures with 27m span each. As a famous wooden-arched corridor bridge in China, it has an elegant and unique model and is connected into one solely by mortise and tenon joints without any nail and iron. Mountains, water, bridge, and pavilion form a delightful contrast, rendering an elegant and harmonious scene.

Built in the Song Dynasty, Wan'an Bridge, as a wooden-arched corridor bridge house with five piers and six apertures, has seen a history of 917 years. 98.2m long and 4.7m wide, it is designed with boat-shaped piers and unequal spans. The shortest and longest spans is 10.6m and 15.2m separately. 38-bay bridge house, 156 pillars, steep tenon-through truss and double-layer grey tiles above present wonderful and marvelous process, grand, classical and dignified manner. It deserves the title of China's most representative ancient wooden-arched corridor bridge and is of great importance to study ancient bridge buildings.

Built in the Song Dynasty, Baixiang Bridge resides around Baiyang Village at the juncture of Tangkou and Shoushan in Pingnan County, 38m long and 4.5m wide. Each aperture has a span of 35m, only 2.5m shorter than that of Zhaozhou Bridge in Hebei Province. There is a 27m distance from the bridge floor to the valley floor. The bridge is designed with a four-pillar and nine-purlin tenon-through structure. Its special position among high mountains and lofty hills and span of an individual aperture across dangerous valleys give it the title of "the most dangerous" wooden-arched corridor bridge in regions south of the Yangtze River.