Anping Bridge

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures and notes about my first field trip with a group of wonderful expat ladies. At the end of August we took two van loads of ladies (many thanks to those who shared their drivers!) out to Anping Bridge. The history you are about to read has been lifted from Apple Travel's website (with some revision by me): This bridge was first built in the eighth year of the Shaoxing in the Song Dynasty (that's 1139 A.D. to you and me) and took 13 years to build. It is made of granite and was once the longest bridge in ancient China at one and a half miles. It is supported by 361 piers and is 3 to 3.8 meters wide. The length of the stone "bricks" vary from 5 to 11 meters long, the heaviest weigh in at 25 tons! The notes say it has "handrails on both sides" but unless you are only three feet tall, I'd say they are more like shin-guards!
The first picture is of some of the piers, I really liked their boat shapes. Some of the piers further down the bridge were less artistic--I think maybe the stone cutters got tired of all that carving and just went for function over form after a while (or, since it took 13 years to complete, times and workers changed). We all thought it was pretty funny that this historic bridge had no markings from the road at all. We could have easily passed right by without seeing it. There was new construction (no surprise there!) in front of the opening gate and was very unassuming from the roadway. Luckily the drivers had sharp eyes and good directions.
So we all piled out of the vans and commented on the beautiful day and nice breeze. Because of this good fortune, I left my sun-umbrella and water bottle in the car...I would come to regret this decision. We set off to walk the length of the bridge, chatting along the way. We represented the U.S., Canada, the U.K., the Philippines, Taiwan and Norway. This was the first time I had met many of these ladies and was glad to get to know them along the walk.
Oops, my photos are a bit out of order (it's hard for me to remember which to download first since they must be done in reverse order and I don't know how to switch them around. I'm sure there's a quick and simple way to do this, I just don't know it!). This is actually the opposite end of the bridge, approaching a village street. The gate at the end opened up onto a dusty alley where a little boy and two women were wandering about. They were surprised to see a bunch of foreign women emerge from the bridge, cameras at the ready!
The views along the bridge were quite nice, especially when I was able to sort of block out the high rise buildings in the background. Apparently the span runs between Anhai Town of Jinjiang and Shuitou Town of Nan'an...but I don't really know what that means! I do know that it is in Fujian province, about a 45 minute drive from Xiamen. The sides of the river were lined with small farms that reminded me of our time in Korea in the early '80s. There were several little pavillions along the route that were meant for resting but they were quite small and didn't have too much to offer.
This temple was roughly in the middle of the bridge. Notice the group of men sitting toward the back. We don't know what their story is or why they were just sitting around on a weekday morning, but they sure got a kick out of our group. Wish I could've understood their comments (or, actually, maybe I don't want to know!). We saw burning incense and stone ovens meant for burning pretend money offerings by the temple but didn't linger too long as it seemed a bit rude to gawk and also it was dark inside there so we couldn't see much.
Along the way there were numerous stone carvings that have really begun to show their age (not surprising, given the time lapse!). I think this was meant to be a lion of some sort but most of its face has eroded away. Now it just looks like a blob.
In front of the little temple we saw twin statues dressed curiously in red sequined capes and halter tops! It's been too long since my World Religions class to even attempt to identify these guys (or maybe they are just guards of the temple) but I certainly would not have expected to see them draped in dance costume fabric regardless of their origin.
So, after we walked the length of the bridge and lamented not asking the drivers to meet us on the other side (had they been able to find it) we turned around for the second mile and a half. By now the wind had died down and we were getting pretty hot. This is where a little shade and some cold water would've come in handy, though it was refreshing in retrospect that this historic place did not have an ounce of commercialism, no trinket shops or little plastic bridge replicas for sale. A three mile walk on somewhat uneven pavers in the bright sun was fun and interesting, but I was grateful to enter the air conditioned van and enjoyed the cool ride to our second destination, the family Cai ancient village (to be described in the next post or whenever I finished the pile of laundry and studying my Chinese lessons!).