Changzhou Wudong Bridge

Changzhou Wudong Bridge

Changzhou Wudong Bridge is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Jiangsu Province.

Wudong Bridge is located in Zhaqiaofangdong Village, Qianhuang Town, Wujin District, Changzhou.

This section of the river is connected by three arched bridges. Historically, it was a five-arched bridge with one high bridge. The arch of the high bridge was 9 meters high and served as the only passageway for farmers from the western region (referring to Huangli Town, Qian Town, and Rulin Town) to transport their harvested rice by wooden boat to Wuxi’s Wuqiao, one of the four major rice markets in southern Jiangsu. Boats could pass through without lowering their masts or sails. This high bridge was demolished in the mid-1970s due to disrepair and was replaced by the current concrete stone arch bridge built by the Wujin County Bridge Engineering Team at that time — a real pity. Thinking about the rice from my hometown in Jintan, Qian Town, and Rulin, which was transported to the rice market in Wuxi during the Ming and Qing dynasties via this bridge, I can’t help but marvel at how hard our ancestors worked.

Wudong Bridge serves as the boundary bridge between Changzhou and Yixing. It consists of three connected arched bridges — besides the five-arched stone bridge, there are also two cement double-curved arch bridges. Due to the rerouting of the canal, these three bridges have now been abandoned and are no longer used. The first bridge has six arches on each side, and the second has three arches on each side.

On December 19, 2011, the People's Government of Jiangsu Province designated it as part of the seventh batch of provincial-level cultural heritage sites.

Qianhuang Town: Located in the southern suburbs of Changzhou, Qianhuang is 8 kilometers from the new urban area of Wujin, adjacent to the Wuxi National Tourism Resort to the east, and 15 kilometers from Yixing, the pottery capital, to the south. It lies at the center between Taihu Lake and [a character missing here] Tao Lake. The town hosts Provincial Highway 11, connects to the Xinchang Railway, and is traversed by key transportation routes such as Wuyi Highway and the mainstream Xilin Canal in southern Jiangsu. It is also just 3 kilometers away from the interchanges of the under-construction Xiyi Expressway and Yanjiang Expressway. Asia’s largest converter station is located within its jurisdiction…

Qianhuang Town has 18 administrative villages and 2 residential committees. The town’s population exceeds 40,000, and its total area is 50.1 square… For more detailed information about Qianhuang Town, ++

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Heritage Sites