Bridging past and future

On an early summer afternoon in Taishun county, a mountainous region of Wenzhou city in Zhejiang province, tourists stroll across Beijian Bridge, a quaint wooden arch bridge spanning a river teeming with red carp. Partly veiled by ancient trees, its weathered red structure stretches 51 meters and is topped by a covered corridor with tiled roofs, flying eaves and carved dragons.

First built in 1674 and rebuilt and repaired several times over the centuries, Beijian Bridge is one of Taishun's 32 historical covered bridges, known in Chinese as langqiao. The term was coined in the 1940s by architect and historian Liu Dunzhen, who encountered such bridges "traversing rivers like rainbows with covered houses on top" during his travels in China's southwestern provinces.

The covered corridor shields the timber structure from the elements while providing shelter for travelers.

"I grew up by the Beijian Bridge," says Chen Songnian, deputy director of the Taishun Museum, pointing toward his ancestral house nearby. "Every day I crossed it on my way to school and often came here to hang out with friends."

Chen was speaking during a media trip organized by the National Cultural Heritage Administration to highlight achievements of the Three-Year Action Plan for the Protection of Covered Bridges (2023-25). The tour took journalists to Taishun in Zhejiang, and the counties of Shouning and Pingnan, both in Ningde city, Fujian province, an area of mountains and deep ravines.

"Covered bridges were the heart of local communities," Chen says. "They not only connected villages but also served as shelters, marketplaces, information hubs, and places of worship. Today, they remain deeply woven into the cultural identity of the Taishun people."

Jointly launched by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the National Cultural Heritage Administration, the action plan recognized covered bridges as an independent category of cultural relics for the first time, strengthening their protection, research and public use.

Over the past three years, a nationwide survey documented 2,193 covered bridges as cultural relics, an increase of more than 61 percent, while conservation efforts have improved significantly nationwide.