Yong'an Stone Bridge

Yong'an Stone Bridge

Yong'an Stone Bridge is a national key cultural relic protection unit.

Yong'an Bridge

A cultural relic protection unit of Liaoning Province. It is located at the eastern end of Yong'an Village, Zizhi Township, Yuhong District, Shenyang City. Also known as the Great Stone Bridge, it was built in the autumn of 1641 during the sixth year of the Chongde era of the Qing Dynasty when constructing the Imperial Road from Shengjing to Beijing. It is one of the more intact ancient stone bridges existing in Shenyang today. The bridge runs east-west and originally spanned the Pu River, but later, as the Pu River bent northwestward 50 meters north of the bridge, only a small stream now flows beneath it. The bridge is a three-arch brick-and-stone structure, 37 meters long overall, 14.5 meters wide externally, with an 8.9-meter-wide roadway and 12-meter-wide approaches at both ends. At each end of the bridge stands a pair of large stone lions, male and female, facing each other. There are 19 baluster pillars on each side, with round-sculpted lions atop the end pillars, while the other pillar tops feature double-layered decorative motifs.

The outer ends of the bridge pillars, the panels between the balusters, and the facing stones on the arches are all intricately carved with reliefs of pairs of deer, tigers, qilin (mythical creatures), oxen, sheep, birds, persimmon-shaped perforations, swirling cloud patterns, dragons playing with pearls, or dragons poking their heads out while curling their tails. The bridge has three arches: the central arch spans 3.73 meters, the side arches each span 3.43 meters, and the rise of the arches is 1.83 meters, forming a semi-circular hingeless, uniform-section circular arch. The entire stone bridge features a sturdy structure, majestic design, exquisite carvings, and reflects the architectural style and carving artistry of ancient Chinese bridges. On the southern side of the road east of the bridge stands a bridge stele, inscribed in Manchu, Chinese, and Mongolian scripts. The front is engraved with "The Compassionate and Holy Emperor Orders the Construction of Yong'an Bridge" and "The Sixth Year of the Chongde Era of the Great Qing, Year of Xin Si, Auspicious Autumn Day," while the back bears the inscription: "Foreman Niu Lu Zhang Jing Zhou Yuanxun, Supervising Officer Jia La Zhang Jing Zang Guozuo, Stonemason Ren Chaogui." Due to years of neglect, the arch bases had sunk and cracked, resulting in considerable damage. In 1979, the municipal government allocated funds for a comprehensive restoration.

On October 7, 2019, Yuhong Yong'an Stone Bridge was included in the eighth batch of National Key Cultural Relic Protection Units.

Further reading:

· Eighth Batch of National Key Cultural Relic Protection Units