Category:Photographs of Guangji Bridge (Chaozhou) by John Thomson

English: "Chao-chow-fu is a walled city of considerable size and great commercial importance, as one may gather from its extensive warehouses, the busy traffic of its streets, the number of mature craft that throng the river on which it stands. The bridge over the River Han is perhaps one of the most remarkable in China, like the old London Bridge, with its shops and places of business, the bridge at Chaochow affords space for one of the city markets. It will be seen that the houses are built of light materials, in a very primitive style, and are supported in such a way as to allow a maximum of market space on the causeway: while from a purely sanitary point of view, the houses projecting over the water offer many advantages. The mode of supporting these structures displays considerable ingenuity, the only brickwork employed rests upon the bridge, and by its weight gives stability to the double brackets that project to support the lighter portion of the houses... Although these bridge-dwellings possess few attractions apart from their breakneck style of architecture, it is pleasing to notice some evidence of refinement in the flowers that adorn the verandas, and that are to be found, indeed, in the humblest dwellings in China. If unexplained, it would be puzzling to find out the use of the two wooden frames which hang suspended from the bridge. They form a kind of moral or mythological drawbridge, which, when let down, is supposed to prevent the passages of boats and evil spirits beneath the bridge till darkness gives place to sunrise." (Thomson, 1873, v.II 19).