Ningbo is a city located in the southeastern region of China. Because of the subtropical monsoon climate, there are lots of lakes and rivers in Ningbo. In order to make people’s lives easier, our ancestors build bridges over rivers. Although there are so many bridges around us, very few of residents have known the names of these bridges and their history. People don’t pay much attention on these bridges, they almost know nothing about them. However, bridges are necessary for us, and its hard to imagine what our lives would be like without these crucial land structures. They fill in the gap between two pieces of land and make transportation more convenient— connecting us together. Some bridges have very long histories and they still work, often with little accumulated damage. Some of them are simple structured but they can bridge over the rivers for such a long time. A few of these bridges also have carved patterns and names their surfaces, which represents their history. There are several types of bridges: flat, arched, stone made, wooden. These background information are interesting because they reveal ancient Chinese architectural wisdom built throughout hundreds of years of Chinese history. And there are also aesthetic values behind them. I will compare the Chinese ancient bridges with several famous bridges in foreign countries. It can show different concepts of construction and aesthetics and also the culture differences.
