Enzo Siviero, vice-president of the Italian University Council and Bruno Briseghella, professor at (IUAV) Università IUAV di VENEZIA, toured Pingnan’s timber arch bridges- including Jinzao Bridge, Qiancheng Bridge and Shuanglong Bridge, and the Dean of the Civil Engineering School of Fuzhou University accompanied the visitors.

Italy aims to build a Chinese-style timber arch bridge in Venice to promote cultural exchanges between the East and West, and the foreign experts also met with Huang Chuncai, a national inheritor of intangible cultural heritage – concerning Chinese traditional techniques to build arch bridges – and discussed bridge construction techniques and historical aspects.

From left to right: Huan Chuncai, Enzo Siviero, Chen Chunbao and Bruno Briseghella, bridge experts from Italy and China, discuss the techniques of building timber arch bridges during their visits to Pingnan on Oct 29.

The Italian experts said that they were impressed by the fact that the arch bridges in Pingnan remain intact hundreds of years after they were built, and they also admired the fact that they were made entirely from timber, without the use of any nails.

The traditional techniques to build wooden arch bridges were included on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2009, following Pingnan’s application.

In 2012, five timber arch lounge bridges in the county, including Wan’an Bridge and Qiancheng Bridge, were included on China’s World Cultural Heritage Tentative List.

The seventh International Arch Bridge Conference and the fourth Chinese-Croatian Joint Colloquium on Long Arch Bridges were held in Split, Croatia, from Oct 2 to 5, and Pingnan was a focus of attention due to its display on China’s timber arch bridges, which included photos and a model of Bianshuihong Bridge, a well-known timber bridge located in Henan.