Zhongshan Bridge

Basic Facts of the Zhongshan Bridge

Chinese Name: 中山桥 Pronunciation: Zhōngshān Qiáo

Building Time: 1909

Best Visiting Time: All year round

Bridge Length: About 233.5 meters

Suggested Visiting Hours: About half an hour

Address: Middle Section of Binhe Road, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province

Introduction of the Zhongshan Bridge

Night Scene

Zhongshan Bridge, also known as Lanzhou Yellow River Iron Bridge, is located in the middle section of Binhe Road, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, and at the feet of Baita Mountain. On May 9, 1908, the Zhongshan Bridge Project in Lanzhou has officially started construction. On August 19, 1909, the Zhongshan Bridge was completed and worked. It is constructed by Chinese craftsmen, designed by American Bridge Company and undertaken by German Tailai Foreign Company.
 

Zhongshan Bridge has four piers and five spans, and each span diameter is 45.9 meters. The upper structure is a trapezium with a steel truss, each span has a truss system with the statically indeterminate structures, and the vertical steel frame is divided into five rectangles. The Zhongshan Bridge is 233.5 meters long and 8.36 meters wide. As a traffic structure project, Zhongshan Bridge embodies the style, schools, and characteristics of architectural art development history in the Westernization Movement Period. In Modern Chinese history, Zhongshan Bridge is the first bridge built by foreign technology in Gansu Province, even in the northwest region. This special construction background and times make Zhongshan Bridge become the key construction to study modern history, and it occupies a unique position in China’s architectural history. Meanwhile, the transportation process of materials needed by the bridge also created a miracle in modern transportation history.
 

On May 25, 2006, Zhongshan Bridge was announced as the Sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. On April 12, 2019, it was selected into the “second batch of China industrial heritage protection list” which is sponsored by the Coordination and Publicity Department of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, and jointly undertaken by the Innovation Strategy Research Institute of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology and the China Association of City Planning.

History of the Zhongshan Bridge

In 1906, Peng Yingjia from Gansu foreign affairs administration central office and Ka Yousi from German Tailai Foreign Company drew up a preliminary cooperation contract on repairing Zhongshan Bridge. Ka Yousi asked engineers to carry out an actual survey. After the survey results came out, the German believed that “although the current Yellow River is turbulent, if the iron bridge is built according to the discussed plan, it will be stable for at least 80 years”.
 

On October 28, 1906, Gansu General Administration of Foreign Affairs and Tailai Foreign Company of Germany formally signed the contract for the repair of Zhongshan Bridge, the preparatory work for the construction of Zhongshan Bridge began in an all-round way.
 

On March 23, 1908, the Imperial Court of the Qing Dynasty sent an agreement “Zhupi” ( comments or remarks written in red with a brush) to Gansu province. So far, the Zhongshan Bridge construction project has been officially recognized by the state.
 

On April 2, 1908, Niu Xianzhu from Zhuanglang County submitted a petition to Peng Yingjia, asked for the suspension of building the Zhongshan Bridge in Lanzhou. He also listed six major disadvantages of the construction of Zhongshan Bridge during the war. Peng Yingjia refused Niu’s viewpoints, and he thought the bridge should be completed without delay.
 

On May 9, 1908, the Zhongshan Bridge Project was officially started.
 

On June 18, 1909, the memorial gates in the north and south of Zhongshan Bridge were completed.
 

In 1928, in memory of Mr. Sun Yat-Sen, the plaque of “Zhongshan Bridge” written by Liu Yufen, President of Gansu Province at that time, was hung on the memorial gate in the south of the bridge. Since then, the “First Bridge” has been renamed “Zhongshan Bridge” and is still used today.
 

On August 26, 1949, in the liberation war of Lanzhou, the bridge floor of Zhongshan Bridge was burnt down, but the bridge was stable as usual. Subsequently, the Lanzhou Military Control Commission organized technicians and engineers to carry out the emergency repair, and it was completed and opened to traffic on September 6th of the same year.
 

In 1992, during the first Silk Road Art Festival, Zhongshan Bridge was regarded as “the symbol of China’s opening to the outside world”.
 

In September 2010, Zhongshan Bridge’s maintenance and reinforcement project plan was approved by the State Cultural Relics Bureau.
 

Since March 30, 2013, to ensure the safety of tourists and protect the key cultural relics of the state, the Zhongshan Bridge is forbidden to motor vehicles.

How to Get to Zhongshan Bridge

By Bus

Take bus 4, 6, 9, 15 or 101 and get off at Xiguan Shizi station, and then walk north for about 870 meters to the destination(about 13 minutes).
 

By Taxi

If you go to Zhongshan Bridge from Lanzhou Hilton Hotel(city center), it takes about 15 yuan(about 15 minutes).

If you go to Zhongshan Bridge from Lanzhou Train Station, it takes about 20 yuan(about 15 minutes).

If you go to Zhongshan Bridge from Lanzhou Zhongshan International Airport, it takes about 150 yuan(about 80 minutes).

Zhongshan Bridge

authorName23241: Conglian Mo

Date: 16/03/2021

Email: info@chinatourstar.com

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