Lugou Bridge (marco Polo Bridge) The Bridge Of Lions

The vast capital of the most populous country in the world

, Beijing has been a political centre of the region since the Warring States Period 2000 years ago. Few cities of the world are as imbued with as much history as Beijing, one of the largest industrial metropolises in the world, successfully compromising between modernity and the dignity of its carefully preserved heritage. The Lugou Bridge is one such well-preserved monument to the grandeur and romance of empires past.

Crossing the long-vanished Yongding River for over 800 years, Lugou Bridge is one of the oldest and largest bridges to be found outside of Beijing. Its fame is due in part to the praises sung by explorer Marco Polo during his travels across China in the 13th century, and in part to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident where the fighting between Japanese troops and the Chinese first began in 1937, culminating in the 8-year Sino-Japanese war which claimed thousands of lives and toppled an empire.

Originally built in 1192, this architectural masterpiece of solid granite stretches out over a distance of 874ft and is over 30ft wide. Four 15ft high ornamental columns flank the entrance to the bridge on either side, atop marble steles. A large central arch arises below it, flanked by 10 smaller marble piers. However, the singular artistic feature that stands out from this construct are the hundreds of stone lions carved upon 250 marble balustrades. Smaller lion figures emerge from beneath the paws and underbelly of larger ones or over their heads, each lion being quite unique in aspect; some are ferocious-looking, others playful and each of them have varying postures. The stone lions are literally countless attempts to produce an exact consistent count of the animals have failed. The enigmatic stone sentries also vary according to time period, having seen the rise and fall of the Jin and Yuan dynasties of the 12th and 13th centuries to the much later Ming and Qing dynasties.

Tourists visiting the city on business or leisure purposes would benefit by staying at a centralized hotel Beijing offers such as Traders Upper East Hotel. Placed close to Beijing's Third Embassy District, the China International Exhibition Centre and the Wang Jing Business Zone this 3 star hotel in Beijing is the ideal place to most easily access the attractions of its business and cultural centres as well as those on its outskirts such as Lugou Bridge

by: Pushpitha Wijesinghe

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