Anmin Bridge

Anmin Bridge

Anmin Bridge is a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou City.

Anmin Bridge, commonly known as Beidu Bridge and also called the North Grand Bridge, is located to the north of Pingwang Town in Wujiang District, Suzhou City. It is a single-arch bridge oriented east-west, spanning the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The arch ring is constructed using the method of vertical jointing with segmented and parallel arrangement. The bridge is 36.7 meters long and 4.6 meters wide. It was initially built in the 34th year of the Jiajing reign during the Ming Dynasty (1555) by Monk Yuanzhen. In the 2nd year of the Chongzhen reign (1629), local residents Niu Mingda and Sun Jianchen reconstructed it. On the eastern end of the bridge, there is the Mituo Hall temple complex. In the early years of the Shunzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty, the temple once built a Guan Yu Pavilion on the bridge, which later collapsed. To the south lies the ancient Ande Bridge from the Qing Dynasty.

On July 1, 1986, Anmin Bridge was announced by the municipal government as one of the first batch of cultural relic protection units of Wujiang City. In September 2012, due to changes in the administrative division of Wujiang, it was reclassified as a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou City. It is now listed as one of the affiliated heritage sites of the “Grand Canal” and recognized as a national key cultural relic protection unit.

Pingwang Town: Located at the center of the tri-provincial and one-municipality area of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Shanghai, Pingwang Town in Wujiang District is 95 kilometers east of Shanghai, 55 kilometers west of Huzhou, 30 kilometers south of Jiaxing, and 35 kilometers north of Suzhou. National Highway 318, Provincial Road 227, the Suzhou–Jiaxing–Hangzhou Expressway, and the Shanghai–Suzhou–Zhejiang Expressway converge within the town. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Taipu River flow across the outskirts of the town, effectively connecting the most prosperous regions of the Yangtze River Delta — including the Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou areas as well as the Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou areas. It serves not only as an important hub for water and land transport in the entire East China region, but also as a pearl along the “Suzhou–Hangzhou Paradise Corridor.” The town’s administrative region covers... More details about Pingwang Town++