Luding Bridge

Luding Bridge is located on Dadu River in Western Sichuan Province, China. In 1961, Luding Bridge was announced by the State Council of the people's Republic of China as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. The bridgehead castle on both sides of Luding Bridge is an ancient wooden structure building, which is unique in China. Today, Luding Bridge is still valued for its unique scenery and special historical value.

Luding Bridge

Luding chain bridge, also known as Dadu bridge, is an iron cable bridge across Dadu River in Luqiao Town, Luding County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. It is the main landscape cultural relic of Luding Bridge scenic spot.

Luding Bridge was built in September 1705 and put into use in April 1706;

On March 4, 1961, it was included in the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units in China;

It was included in the management of scenic spots in 2003.

Luding Bridge, 103.67 meters long and 3 meters wide, is an ancient bridge with a long history. It is famous both at home and abroad for the battle of "seizing Luding Bridge by flying".

Construction process

During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the material exchange between the Tibetans and the Hans reached the Dadu River, which was transferred by ferry or rope. Sometimes they could not cross the river in time. The goods on both sides of the Dadu River were often piled up like mountains. Some fresh food (such as mountain delicacies, seafood, meat and vegetables) rotted because they could not cross the river, and the army frequently moved to form an obstruction here.

In September 1705, Emperor Kangxi ordered the construction of the first bridge on the Dadu River in order to unify the country and solve the obstruction of the road from the Han area to the Tibetan area.

In April 1706, the first bridge on the Dadu River was built. Emperor Kangxi took the meaning of "Lushui" (the Dadu River used to be called "moshui", but Kangxi mistakenly thought it was "Lushui") and "Pingding" (pacifying the rebellion in Junggar, Tibet). He wrote "Luding Bridge" in his own handwriting, and set up a stele at the head of the bridge. The text of the stele was "Luding Bridge", with horizontal inscription "Luding Bridge" "Unifying mountains and rivers".

Luding Bridge began to become a link between Tibetan and Han transportation, hence the name of Luding County.

In June 1969, Luding Bridge was repaired once. During the overhaul, many new technologies were adopted, such as using low-carbon round steel to make iron chain instead of the original hand forged rough iron, and using blower instead of traditional hand-held air box.

On June 21, 1970, the 340 unit of 7848 unit of the Chinese people's Liberation Army (PLA) went to Luding Bridge to visit. The bottom chain No. 7 (a few meters from the upper river to the lower) broke 30 meters away from the east bank. Then the 07039 project headquarters sent personnel to pull the broken chain out of the river and connect it with lifting clasps.

On February 4, 1972, Guo Moruo, a Chinese writer, inscribed "Luding Bridge", a cultural relic protection unit of Luding Bridge.

In March 1974, the State Administration of cultural relics of the people's Republic of China appropriated funds for the overhaul of Luding Bridge. When it was about to be completed, the chain on the upstream side of the bridge broke suddenly, causing a chain reaction, resulting in three broken chains, causing the bridge deck to tilt, and the repair tools placed on the bridge deck fell into the river.

In 1975, the veterans of a certain Chinese army organized a visit to Luding Bridge. After dozens of people got on the bridge, three of the nine bottom chains suddenly broke and the bridge deck tilted 45 degrees.

In 2003, the former Ministry of construction of the people's Republic of China approved the establishment of Luding Bridge scenic spot.

As of October 2016, Luding Bridge has a history of 310 years. The iron ring of the bridge is marked with the blacksmith shop where the craftsman is located and the craftsman's marks, which is the supervision mechanism for the maintenance of the bridge.

Bridge location

Luding Bridge is located on Dadu River between Hexi street and Chengwu Road, Luqiao Town, Luding County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province,

In the north, it is 5km away from the upstream Yakang Expressway (G42 < sub18 < / sub) < / I Xingkang bridge, 8km away from the expressway entrance and exit, and 800m away from the downstream Chengnan bridge in the south;

The bridge connects Haizi mountain in the West and Erlang Mountain in the East.

Architectural design

building structure

Luding Bridge is a suspension type cable-stayed bridge. The whole bridge is composed of bridge body, abutment and Bridge pavilion. The bridge body is composed of several parallel iron chains with thick bowl mouth. The bridge railing is directly erected by iron chains, and the wooden boards are laid on the iron chains side by side to form the bridge deck. The handrail and the bottom chain are connected by small iron chains, and each iron chain is linked;

The abutments are located at both ends of the bridge body. Iron piles are fixed in the abutments, and iron chains are fixed in the iron piles of the abutments on both sides;

The bridgehead castle on both sides of the bridgehead is an ancient wooden structure building of Han nationality with unique style;

There is a bridge pavilion built on the anchored iron chain well, with the cornice tilted, simple and generous; you Guanyin at the west end of the bridge has a plaque erected by Kangxi.

The horizontal slab of Luding Bridge is laid at intervals, just like a window lattice. This structure can not only reduce the weight of the bridge, but also reduce the wind resistance. The design of connecting the hand chain and the bottom chain every 5 meters makes the bridge body form a harmonious and unified whole.

Design parameters

Luding Bridge is 103.67 meters long and 3 meters wide. There are 13 iron chains in the whole bridge, 2 on each side of the bridge fence and 9 on the bridge deck. Each iron chain is made up of 862 to 997 iron rings, with a total of 12164 iron rings;

The abutments at both ends are 20 meters high,

The east end of the bridge is 14.5 meters high and the west end is 5.2 meters high; the total weight of iron parts of the bridge is more than 40 tons, of which the weight of iron chain is 21 tons, and the average weight of each iron chain is 1.6 tons; the accumulated iron consumption of one horizontal Wolong pile and seven vertical earthworm piles is more than 20 tons;

Each plank is 3 meters long and 0.1 meters wide. The width of the main aisle board in the middle of the cross bridge is 0.75 meters, and the width of the auxiliary aisle board at the handrails on both sides of the bridge is 0.2 meters.

Construction achievements

Technical problems

In ancient times, most bridges were built according to local conditions. However, Dadu River is located in a remote mountainous area. The river is hundreds of meters wide, and the current is turbulent and unfathomable all the year round. The Luding Bridge project could hardly be completed under the level of science and technology at that time. It is necessary to solve the problems of iron cable supply, iron cable crossing the river and iron cable fixing. At that time, there was no iron production in Luding County, and blacksmiths were scarce, so bridge builders went to Yingjing County, where iron deposits were large, to cast iron ropes. After the production of iron ropes, they need to connect the two sides of the river. Workers tried to transport the iron ropes by sheepskin rafts or ships, but they could not achieve it. Finally, people used the "rope crossing principle" to tie the thick bamboo ropes on both sides of the river, put more than 10 short bamboo tubes on each bamboo rope, then tie the iron chain on the bamboo tube, and finally pull the rope tied on the bamboo tube from the opposite bank to complete the iron rope transportation. After the iron rope crossed the river, people built strong bridgeheads on both sides with large stones, then dug deep wells in the bridgeheads at both ends, and cast horizontal Wolong piles and vertical earthworm piles with pig iron at the bottom of the wells; finally, all the iron chains were connected with earthworm piles, and wooden boards were laid on the bottom iron chains to form the bridge deck, and each iron chain was linked to form a bridge.

 

Cultural characteristics

Cultural relics protection

On March 4, 1961, Luding Bridge was announced by the State Council as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units in China.

 

tourist resources

In December 2016, Luding Bridge scenic spot was rated as China's national AAAA scenic spot and one of China's famous red tourist attractions.

 

In history, the Emperor Kangxi wrote "Luding Bridge" in his writing. To the east of the bridge, there is a stele of Luding Bridge made by Emperor Kangxi, which records the reasons for the bridge's repair, the scale of the bridge and the maintenance methods;

 

The iron rope was fixed on the iron piles on both sides of the Strait and engraved with the words "in the 44th year of Kangxi, Ma Zhichang, a goldsmith of Hanzhong mansion, was made in September of the second year of Yiyou, and the casting weight was 1800 Jin".

 

The whole Luding Bridge tourist area is composed of Luding Bridge, Luding Bridge revolutionary cultural relics museum, Red Army flying to seize Luding Bridge Monument and its park.

 

Cultural works

There are many works about the literature, art and patriotic education of Luding Bridge, mainly including the Chinese text "flying to seize Luding Bridge" in primary and secondary schools

 

Liu Guoshu's oil painting "flying over Luding Bridge"

 

Chairman Mao's seven character metrical poem "seven rhythms · Long March",

 

And the contemporary TV series "Long March" and so on.

 

Luding County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, relying on the spirit of the Red Army flying to seize Luding Bridge, has created songs, sketches, Allegro and other works of double support culture theme, such as "song of Luding Bridge", "love for Luding", and red culture theme books, such as "Long March of the Red Army in Luding" and "three hundred years of Luding Bridge".

 

Historical story

In 1863, Yiwang shidakai, a famous uprising General of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, failed to cross the Dadu River at Luding Bridge, and the whole army was destroyed.

 

On May 29th, 1935, the Chinese workers' and peasants' Red Army passed through Luding Bridge on the long march. The commando team led by 22 warriors, braved the enemy's bullets, crawled forward on the Tiesuo bridge and wiped out the bridgehead guards at one stroke. The battle of "seizing Luding Bridge by flying" opened the way for the Red Army to go northward to resist Japanese aggression during the Long March, and composed the "startling, dangerous and dangerous" stories in the history of Chinese revolution and world army

Chinese PinYin : Lu Ding Qiao