SIPO Bridge

SIPO Bridge

SIPO bridge is located in the fourth straight river (the north section is also called Pingjiang River) in the ancient city, which runs through the north and south along the west side of Pingjiang road. It is the first East-West ancient bridge crossing the Pingjiang river section of the fourth straight river in the city from the south. It is a single span Shiliang bridge and the bridge is dalangqiao Lane (Jianxin Lane).

The original date of construction is unknown, but in the Song Dynasty's Pingjiang map, there is a bridge here, named Sidong bridge, which is named after Zishou temple, an ancient temple of the Tang Dynasty, in the west of the bridge. Later, it was transformed into SIPO bridge. It is said that Zishou temple is a nunnery courtyard, and the nun is commonly known as Shipo. The bridge was rebuilt in 1985. The bridge is 11.2m long, 4.4m long, 3M wide and 2.9m high. The bridge deck is composed of four granite beams with a width of 50 cm, and the bridge railing is about 40 cm high, which is not decorated. It can be used for people to sit on the top of the bridge and enjoy the scenery. There are ten stone steps on each slope. On the outside of the stone column is engraved the big character "rebuilding SIPO bridge", on the south side of the bridge abutment is engraved the characters "Jiaqing Yichou April", and on the north side is engraved the characters "lilen", all of which were left by the reconstruction in the 10th year of Jiaqing (1805). Due to its long history and repeated reconstruction, there are still many Wukang stones and bluestones used to build bridges earlier than granite. In particular, the main structure of the bridge is Wukang stone, and the long series stone with Ganoderma lucidum and Baolian carved on both ends is also Wukang stone. From the material, structure and carving, it should be a relic of the Song Dynasty, which is enough to prove that the existing SIPO bridge has been built for at least 700 years. On the diamond wall in the northwest of the bridge, there is a bluestone tablet, but the handwriting is not clear.

Address: block 1, south of Pingjiang Road, Canglang District, Suzhou

Longitude: 120.63470061244

Latitude: 31.309877962795

Ticket information: no ticket required.

Chinese PinYin : Si Po Qiao