If we say the four great inventions (Gunpowder, Compass, Paper and Art of Printing) reflected ancient China’s scientific achievements, then Zhaozhou Stone Bridge perfectly represented one of the greatest contributions to ancient China’ bridge building. Nobody was unfamiliar with the stone bridge full of legends and vivid folk stories.

The ancient Zhaozhou stone bridge started to be built in 590 during the Sui-Dynasty (581-618) and established in 608. The pioneer for building the bridge was Li Chun who overcame unimaginable difficulties, undergoing all conceivable hardships. The location of the bridge is in Zhao County south, Hebei Province. It lay across the Xiaoshui River, far away from the mountains that provided rocky materials. In ancient times, it was such a busy, deep and wide river that could be used as an important carriage to transport heavy rocks and other materials. As we know, no train, no lifting machine could be used to move granite blocks to the construction site. As an intelligent stonemason and engineer, Li Chun worked out his plan and design all from his own direct observation and investigation. It took his whole life-time in completing the great historical project in China. Nowadays it is not only a historical remarkable model of architecture, but also a brilliant Chinese cultural crystallization of wisdom.

The entire length of the bridge is 50.82 meters with 10 meters width. The whole stone bridge looks like a big bow, the span of which is 37.02 meters, and its height from the top to the surface of water at a regular position is 7.23 meters. The bridge arch seems to be moving smoothly and flatly. The whole arch consists of 28 big granite blocks connected each other tightly together. On both end sides of the general arch there are 4 smaller arches, 2 of which on one side, the other 2 on the other side. The smaller arches could be used to decrease the weight of the bridge and save stone materials, and help blood get through easily, which seems to be much prettier. Such a hard-thinking and careful consideration of the engineering article is really a model of design and layout. The span was much wider than the other stone bridge in ancient times all over China.

Today Zhaozhou Stone Bridge is one of international cultural relics and perfectly protected and preserved by the concerned administration of China.

A few days ago I was lucky to have an opportunity to visit it personally. Although the Wen River is not so deep without boats moving back and forth, the bridge stands still as it did over 1500 years ago. The Zhaozhou Stone Bridge left me very deep impressions of its body and its leading way. In front of the bridge there is a godlike road like a big tail to the body. On both sides of the way stand eight fairy figures, namely, Eight Immortals in Taoist Mythology (that is, Han Zhongli, Zhang Guolao, Lu Dongbin, Li Tieguai, Han Xinagzi, Cao Guojiu, Lan Caihe, and Heh Xiangu) who had crossed the sea by showing their prowess.
Even today the folk tale on Eight Immortals are still told all over China. There is a popular folk song named A Little Cowboy Ditty related to Zhaozhou Bridge.
Right now I’d like to write a poem to conclude my paper:
My Impression of the Ancient Zhaozhou Stone Bridge
A great nation needs greatly magic fables or other forms of literature and art. We Chinese people have benefited very much from our classic literary works, which will still help our foreign friends understand the Chinese people’s humane inner world and their thinking habit.