THE CHENGTU PLAIN iii 



presenting scenes of mythical or everyday life. The ends of 

 the ridge pole and the gable eaves are usually long drawn out 

 and revolutely upturned, adding additional lightness and 

 beauty to the whole. These long, exaggerated, upturned 

 eaves are a characteristic feature of the houses, temples, and 

 shrines met with all over this region. 



The innumerable ditches, canals, and streams are all well 

 bridged. The bridges are kept in good repair, and reflect the 

 highest credit on the engineers who constructed them. They 

 are built of red or grey sandstone, more rarely of wood, as near 

 Han Chou. The stone bridges vary from one to a dozen or 

 more arches, sometimes hog-backed, but more usually the 

 " Roman Arch " is employed ; others are of causeway or 

 trestle design, with or without balustrades, ranging from a 

 single slab laid across a narrow ditch to many such laid on 

 a series of piers built in the bed of the streams. Near Sintu 

 Hsien there is an example of one of these trestle or pier- 

 bridges 120 yards long. Outside the east gate of Chengtu is a 

 red-sandstone bridge of nine arches, which is generally regarded 

 as the bridge mentioned by Marco Polo. A similar bridge 

 exists near Yao-chia-tu, but this has some twenty arches. Im- 

 mediately outside Han Chou there is a covered wooden bridge, 

 120 yards long, 6 yards broad, resting on eight stone piers. 

 This bridge, known as the Chin-ying chiao (Bridge of the Golden 

 Goose), is the handsomest, most ornate wooden structure of 

 its kind I have met with in my travels. 



In reference to the bunding of the streams and canals it 

 should be mentioned that cobble-stones enclosed within long 

 sausage-shaped, bamboo-latticed crates are universally em- 

 ployed for this purpose. This system is said to date back 

 to the later times of the Ming dynasty only. Previous to that 

 period the principal abutments and revetments were of iron, 

 fashioned into the shape of gigantic oxen, turtles, pillars, etc. 

 At the places where canals unite or divide, or where the water 

 cascades to a lower level, the earthworks are protected by walls 

 of stones firmly cemented together. 



Another item, and one which astonishes every traveller, 

 is the enormous size of the blocks of stone used in the bridges, 

 more especially those erected on piers. I have no exact 



