What is the Reason for the Name of Guifang Bridge?

Address: East Street, Linping Sub-district 

Era: Unknown 

Introduction: It is a single-hole stone arch bridge, built using the method of vertical and parallel jointed sections. The bridge is 18.55 meters long, 5.06 meters wide, with a span of 10.45 meters. There are east-west approach bridges on both sides of the bridge. On the east and west side of the bridge, there are three Chinese characters carved in regular script, "Guifang Bridge."

In ancient times, there were three famous attractions in Linping, known as the "Three Wonders of Linping," which were "Bridge Piers and Duplicate Bridges," "Hidden Temples in the Temple, "and "River within the River." "Bridge Piers and Duplicate Bridges" refers to the Guifang Bridge on Shangtang River.

Guifang Bridge is located between the East Street of Linping Sub-district, and Henandai Road of Nanyuan Sub-district, crossing the Shangtang River from north to south.

The bridge has a unique structure and exquisite craftsmanship. Originally, there was an east-west bridge on the north bank, with a sluice gate underneath used for water drainage from the Shangtang River. During the Song Dynasty, the East Street served as the center of the market town, and to facilitate transportation, another north-south bridge was built. After the sluice gate became silted up, bridge piers were built on top of the east-west bridge, hence the name "bridge on top of the bridge."

There is also a historical story behind the name Guifang Bridge. Legend has it that during the Southern Song Dynasty, three brothers named Xu Xuan, Xu Yin, and Xu Gai from Linping jointly petitioned against the corrupt official Jia Sidao, but they were falsely accused and imprisoned. After Jia Sidao fell from power, the Xu brothers were vindicated and passed the imperial examination, achieving great success. The people of their hometown felt proud and renamed the bridge as "Guifang Bridge" during its reconstruction, symbolizing the brothers' success and glory.

Since the Song Dynasty, Guifang Bridge has been rebuilt multiple times. These reconstructions are recorded on stone tablets beside the bridge, including in the ninth year of the Yuan dynasty (1305), the seventh year of the Ming Tianqi era (1627), the eighteenth year and the twenty-eighth year (1848) of the Qing Daoguang era (1838), and so on.

It was listed as a cultural relic protection site of Yuhang County in 1983, a municipal-level cultural relic protection site of Hangzhou in 2009, a provincial-level cultural relic protection site of Zhejiang Province in January 2011, and included in the seventh batch of national key cultural relic protection sites in March 2013.