One Existing Porous Arched Great Stone Bridge in Beijing

Early in the Warring States Period, the Lugou Bridge Ferry has been thevital communication line of the Yanji region along TaihangMountains to the North China Plain. The Lugou Bridge was started with construction in the 29^th year of Emperor Shizong of Jin, Dading (1189) after Beijing was chose by Jin Dynasty as capital, and finished in the 3^rd year of Emperor Zhangzong of Jin, Mingchang (1192), named as Guangli Bridge, but it was changed to Lugou Bridge in Yuan dynasty, because the Yongding River was called Lugou River in the old times. The overall length of the LugouBridge is 266.5m and the width is 9.3m, with 11 arches underneath. There are totally 281 stone carving guardrails and baluster columns on both sides of the bridge, with 501 stone lions featuring distinct sizes and shapes carved on the columns, as vivid as life. There are four steles on the bridge, among which, the white marble stele with the inscription of Qianlong, the Emperor of Qing dynasty, stands in the pavilion east of the bridge, the inscription is Lu Gou Xiao Yue (Morning Moon over Lugou) . The renovation stele of LugouBridge, which was set up in the 8^th year of Kangxi(1669) and lies in the east of the Lu Gou Xiao Yue stele, is the highest of the four existing steles. Its inscription was from Emperor Kangxi himself, which recorded the situation of the renovation of the bridge after its east part structure being destroyed by the flood in the 7^th year of Kangxi. It also highly confirmed the importance of the LugouBridge. On the west end of the bridge, there are also two steles in the north side of the goose wing, among which, the one in the east side is about Kangxi inspecting Yongding River, the pavilion of which still exists; and that in the west side is about Qianlong renovating the Lugou Bridge, but the pavilion of which has been destroyed. LugouBridge and its stone-carving arts have been praised for a long time. 700 years ago, Marco Polo, one Italian traveler but holding a post in China government, has named Lugou Bridge as the best and unique bridge in the world in his Travels Of Marco Polo, since when this old bridge was spread all over the world along with the book. In Ming and Qing periods, Lu Gou Xiao Yue is one of the eight famous scenery of Beijing. WanpingCity is the only one wholly preserved guarding city with two gates in North China. It was built from 1638 to 1640 under the leadership of Wu Jun, an eunuch in Yumajian of Ming Dynasty, originally named as GongbeiCity but changed to GongjiCity in Qing Dynasty. It has two gates, the east one is Shunzhi Gate and the west one Yongchang Gate (changed to Weiyan Gate in Qing Dynasty), the west-east length of the city is 640m, the north-south width is 320m and the gross area is about 210,000m².