Zhangshui Wan’an Bridge

Zhangshui Wan’an Bridge

Zhangshui Wan’an Bridge is a cultural heritage site under the protection of Haishu District.

Zhangshui Wan’an Bridge is located in Miyay Village, Zhangshui Town, Haishu District. As it shares the same name with another Wan’an Bridge in Hengjie, this bridge is distinguished by adding the name of the locality. According to the stone plaque inscribed with the regular script characters “Wan’an Bridge,” there is an inscription on the upper margin: “Auspicious day in the middle ten days of the first lunar month in the year of Renzi,” and on the lower margin: “By the 83-year-old Ying Yuanbi,” among other texts. Combined with stories from local villagers who said they heard from elders when they were young that the bridge had already existed, and based on the architectural style of the bridge, it is judged to be a structure from the Qing Dynasty. Furthermore, according to China’s traditional sexagenary cycle calendar system, it can be deduced that the latest possible year of construction would be 1852, the last “Renzi” year of the Qing Dynasty.

The bridge spans the Miyay Stream from north to south. To the south lies Bengyan Mountain, and it serves as a vital route to Ningbo. Originally a wooden plank bridge, it was often washed away by floods. In the Qing Dynasty, an elderly man funded the construction of this single-arch stone bridge. The arch is built using the method of vertically aligned, segmented, and parallel construction. The total length of the bridge is 37.85 meters, and the clear span of the arch is 9.85 meters. The arch opening is 4.30 meters high and 2.73 meters wide. The sloping approaches to the bridge on both the north and south ends are paved with dirt and stones. There are 11 stone steps on the southern side of the main bridge and 10 on the northern side. The bridge walls are built with irregularly stacked stones, and the edges of the bridge deck are reinforced with stone parapets serving both as railings and structural support.

Built over a large stream, this bridge holds typical structural significance for arched bridges. Although the Jiaokou Reservoir was constructed upstream in the early years after the liberation, prior to that, the bridge had already withstood the onslaught of raging floods, proving its resilience and thus holding significant cultural heritage value. In September 2010, it was announced as the ninth batch of district-level cultural heritage sites in Yinzhou District. In 2016, following the adjustment of Ningbo’s administrative divisions, it came under the jurisdiction of Haishu District.

Source: Haishu District Cultural Relics Management Office

Zhangshui Town: Zhangshui Town is a historic town in western Yinzhou. It borders Yanjiang Town to the east, Longguan Township and Fenghua City to the south, is backed by Siming Mountain to the west, and neighbors Yuyao City to the north. It serves as the gateway and natural barrier connecting the Yinzhou Plain to the hinterland of Siming Mountain. With its steep terrain, it has been a strategic military location since ancient times and holds great strategic importance, hence earning the title “Key to Siming.” The administrative area of Zhangshui Town covers 146 square kilometers, making it the largest township in Yinzhou District. It governs 20 administrative villages and 1 neighborhood committee, with a total population of nearly 30,000. In 2005, the region achieved a gross domestic product of 400 million yuan. The town government... More details about Zhangshui Town++