China News Agency, Pingnan, Fujian, August 7th (Reporter Lv Qiaoqin and Lin Chunyin) At about 21:00 on August 6th, the Wan'an Bridge, the longest existing wooden arched ancient covered bridge in China, caught fire.

The local official issued a fire notice in the early morning of the 7th, saying that all the open flames have been extinguished, no casualties, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

　　China has been known as "the country of bridges" since ancient times.

In Ningde City, Fujian Province, there are more than 50 wooden arch bridges that have survived for decades or even hundreds of years. The number, scale, and craftsmanship of these bridges are rare in China. , a treasure trove of wooden arch bridges.

　　Wan'an Bridge is located in Changqiao Village, Changqiao Town, Pingnan County, Ningde City. It spans the Changqiao River and is a five-pier six-hole wooden arch bridge; the bridge is 98.2 meters long and 4.7 meters wide. One of the bridges was listed as the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

According to records, Wan'an Bridge was built in the fifth year of Yuanyou in the Northern Song Dynasty (1090).

　　In July 2021, Pingnan County handled cultural relics (immovable) protection insurance for the wooden arch bridges "Wan'an Bridge", "Qiancheng Bridge" and "Baixiang Bridge", creating a "judicial + insurance" protection for ancient covered bridges in Fujian. precedent.

If the covered bridge is damaged due to fire, explosion, lightning strike, torrential rain, flood, etc., the resulting repair costs or original site reconstruction costs shall be compensated by the insurance agency according to the contract.

　　Today, Wan'an Bridge is suddenly caught on fire.

Some local villagers sighed that the covered bridge, which must be crossed since trotting to go to school, may become a "last dream".

Pingnan County officials said that they will evaluate the fire situation and make every effort to do follow-up work such as repairs.

　　After the Wan'an Bridge was set on fire, there are still more than 10 wooden arch bridges built in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties in Pingnan, including a single-hole span of 35 meters, known as "the first danger in the south of the Yangtze River". The Baixiang Bridge, the bridge expert Mao Yisheng, was praised as the "model work" of Chinese wooden arch bridges, and the Qiancheng Bridge was designed as a "rooster flapping wings".

　　There are also more than 100 wooden arch bridges since the Song Dynasty in the mountainous counties and cities in southern Zhejiang and northern Fujian.

These ancient covered bridges do not need to be connected by one nail and one rivet and tenon.

　　In October 2009, the "traditional construction techniques of Chinese wooden arch bridges" represented by Fujian and Zhejiang were included in the "List of Human Intangible Cultural Heritage in Urgent Need of Protection" by UNESCO.

In 2012, 22 wooden arch bridges in seven counties in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces were included in the "China World Cultural Heritage Preliminary List".

　　At present, Shouning County, Pingnan County, Zhouning County, Zhenghe County in Fujian Province, Taishun County, Qingyuan County, and Jingning County in Zhejiang Province are in the process of applying for the World Heritage List, jointly formulating the action plan for the application and formulating the protection plan for the wooden arch bridge in Zhejiang and Fujian. Wait.

　　The protection effect of the wooden arch bridge has begun to show.

In the past four years, Zhejiang and Fujian have built 32 wooden arch bridges through fundraising and donations; the number of inheritors of traditional wooden arch bridge construction techniques has increased from 33 to 52.

　　However, the threat of natural disasters and fires to the wooden arch bridge is still difficult to resist.

In 2016, three ancient covered bridges in Taishun County, Zhejiang Province were damaged by the typhoon; in addition to Wan'an Bridge, Yuqing Bridge in Wuyi Mountain in northern Fujian and Buyue Bridge in Jianou were also destroyed by fire.

　　Architectural scholar Liu Yan, author of "Weaving Wooden Arch Bridges", is doing fieldwork on wooden arch bridges in Pingnan.

At the burning site of Wan'an Bridge, Liu Yan told a reporter from China News Agency that local craftsman Huang Chuncai had followed his father to rebuild Wan'an Bridge several times. The bridge was burnt down, which is a very heart-wrenching thing from the perspective of cultural relics, but it is not impossible to restore the skill inheritance.”

　　A reporter from China News Agency learned that the Wan'an Bridge, which was on fire, preserved a hole and its affiliated cultural relics, the Dasheng Temple.

The Pingnan County official said that the cause of the fire will be identified as soon as possible, and the relevant responsible persons will be strictly held accountable; the repair work of Wan'an Bridge has been started, and a repair plan has been initially drawn up and will be submitted for approval according to the procedures.

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