Changle Bridge

Changle Bridge stands in what is now Changle Village, Dongping Subdistrict, Lishui District. The Paper reported in 2024 that it is a three-arch stone bridge 36 to 39.5 metres long and 3.7 metres wide, with carved chi-dragon heads and other stone members surviving on the structure.

Two views on its date

The Jiangsu provincial list of protected sites records Changle Bridge as Ming, and this entry follows the list for its period.

A second view comes from media reports. Xinhua Daily reported in 2024 that the Jiankang Gazetteer of 1261 already records Changle Bridge. That report is the main support for the view that the bridge existed in the Southern Song, but it is a second-hand account and the gazetteer itself has not been checked against the original. China Jiangsu Net reported in 2020 that the bridge is about 760 years old, which is a round figure.

The gazetteer record can show only that the bridge existed in 1261; it cannot establish the year it was first built. The Ming date in the list may likewise refer to the main body of the surviving structure. This entry sets the two views side by side without choosing between them.

Listing and repairs

In its report on the Fourth National Survey of Cultural Relics, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism states that Changle Bridge was listed as a provincial-level protected site in 2002. The gazette notice for the fifth provincial batch has not been traced, so this entry gives the batch and year only and supplies no document number.

The Paper reports that in November 2004 the Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics began repairs to the bridge. Before the work the structure lay partly sunk in silt; after repair it kept a Southern Song bridge style. In December 2024 the Fourth National Survey carried out a field survey of the bridge.

Uncertainties

First, "kept a Southern Song bridge style" describes the appearance after repair and does not mean that all surviving members are Southern Song originals. Second, the length is given in the reports as a range; this entry repeats the range rather than taking a middle value. Third, the sources consulted give neither the year of first construction nor the dates of successive repairs.