Tongji Bridge (Yuyao)

Tongji Bridge 通濟橋
Tongji Bridge and the Shunjiang Building in 1930s
Crosses	Yao River
Locale	Yuyao, Ningbo, Zhejiang province,  People's Republic of China
Characteristics
Design	Arch bridge
Height	6 m (20 ft)
Longest span	14.2 m (47 ft)
No. of spans	3
History
Construction start	Song Dynasty (wooden) Yuan Dynasty (stone) Qing Dynasty (repair)
Construction end	1048 1332 1731

The Tongji Bridge (traditional Chinese: 通濟橋, simplified Chinese: 通济桥, pinyin: Tōng Jì Qiáo), is a famous stone arch bridge located in Yuyao, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. "Tongji Bridge" ("Tong" means transport/transportantion, "Ji" means aid or cross a river) is a very common name for bridges in ancient China.

The bridge has a very long history. It is the first large-sized arch bridge in the Eastern Zhejiang region, so it's also called the First Bridge of Eastern Zhe (traditional Chinese: 浙東第一橋, simplified Chinese: 浙东第一桥, pinyin: Zhè Dōng Dì Yī Qiáo, "Zhe" is the short name for Zhejiang Province).

The construction of the bridge started first during the Qingli (traditional Chinese: , simplified Chinese: , pinyin: Qìng Lì) Era (1041–1048) of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it was wooden structure. Its original name was Dehui Bridge (traditional Chinese: 德惠橋, simplified Chinese: 德惠桥, pinyin: Dé Huì Qiáo). And its name later was changed to Hong Bridge (traditional: 虹橋, simplified Chinese: 虹桥, pinyin: Hóng Qiáo, "Hong" means rainbow). It was destroyed in wars and reconstructed for several times.

In Yuan Dynasty, a Buddhism monk named Huixing (traditional Chinese: 惠興, simplified Chinese: 惠兴, pinyin: Huì Xìng) started rebuilding the bridge using rocks, but he died when the construction was half-finished. Then a Taoist named LI Daoning (traditional Chinese: 李道寧, simplified Chinese: 李道宁, pinyin: Lǐ Dào Níng, his surname was Li) continued his unfinished work. In the third year (year 1332) of the Zhishun (tradition Chinese: , simplified Chinese: , pinyin: Zhì Shùn) Era of the Yuan Dynasty, the bridge was finally finished, and was renamed as "Tongji Bridge". There was a stone tablet aside the bridge, and there were eight characters on the stele - Hai Bo Guo er Feng Fan bu Xie (traditional Chinese:, simplified Chinese: 海舶过而风帆不解, pinyin: Hǎi Bó Guò ér Fēng Fān bú Jiě ), which means ships can go through the bridge's arch without any obstacles.