Nation’s oldest wood bridge burns down; enhanced protection of relics urged
China’s 900-year-old wood arch bridge, Wan’an bridge, built in the Song Dynasty (9601127) in Pingnan county, East China’s Fujian Province, has been marred by fire on Saturday night, leading to the collapse of the longest wood arch bridge in China. No casualties were reported in the fire.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The Criminal Investigation Department of the Pingnan County Public Security Bureau has stepped in for the case’s further inquiry.
“It was likely to be caused by man-made conducts and not a natural disaster, the spontaneous combustion of bridge on water is rare.” Xu Yitao, an ancient architecture expert at Peking University, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Although the open fires of the bridge had been putted out in around 10 hours, the 900-year-old wood bridge’s body has been burnt to collapse during the first 20 minutes of fire, as Xu noted, its unique wooden structure made it even more susceptible to fire.
The Wan’an bridge, China’s oldest surviving wood arch bridge was also the longest one of its kind in China, ranging 98.2 meters.
It holds significant cultural value as it shows ancient Chinese mastered wisdom and ingenuities on wooden architecture designs, especially when the wooden arch bridge prototype in a length like such was extremely difficult to manifest.
Saturday’s incident was not the first time the Wan’an bridge was threatened by fires. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in the reign of the emperor Kangxi, the bridge had also been burnt and later restored.
Fire prevention is one of the important works needed for protecting ancient wooden architectures, Shan Jixiang, head of China Cultural Relics Academy,
told the Global Times on Sunday.
Before the Wan’an bridge, in 2021, the Wengding village, the last primitive tribe of China in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province was engulfed by fire after an 8-year-old child was playing with fire in the village.
In 2005, the bridge became one of the Sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. The damages led to calls for enhanced protection of ancient wooden architectures.