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When it comes to Dawenkou culture, the first thing that comes to mind is ceramics, followed by Mingshi Bridge, which straddles Dawenkou River and was once the main road of commercial communication and the longest existing ancient stone bridge in the province. It is also a monument to witness Dawenkou culture. This issue of Dawenkou Culture takes you to enjoy the pictures of Shiming Bridge in Dawenkou.

The Shi Ming Bridge outside the southwest gate of Wenkou has a unique architectural style and spans the Dawen River. It has become a witness to the ancient prosperity of Dawenkou, rugged, majestic, solid and durable.

It starts from the southwest gate of Dawenkou Town in the north and connects to Teashed (Baotou) Village in Ningyang County in the south. The whole bridge has 65 holes, about a mile long. It is the oldest and most complete stone bridge in Dawenkou River. Legend has it that it was originally a simple wooden bridge, and later it was changed into a segmented stone slab bridge. It was not until the Qin Long period of the Ming Dynasty that a monolithic stone slab bridge across the Dawen River was built.

In the eighth year of Yongzheng in Qing Dynasty, the original stone bridge was destroyed by floods, and the gentry and villagers on both sides of the strait suffered from lack of funds to build it. Jiang Guisong, the owner of the porridge shop who started from attacking stones, took up this position alone and "donated money to advocate repair". After six years of Qianlong, the stone bridge was built, and people on both sides of the strait felt its meaning. They once erected a monument to commemorate this event and renamed it "Jianggong Bridge". After that, it was renovated twice, but the original appearance of "Jianggong Bridge" was maintained.

It turned out to be a stone dragon used to calm water in the middle of the stone bridge. It was destroyed as the "four old" in the Cultural Revolution. At present, only the wreckage stands alone on both sides of the Siming Bridge in Hebei Province, as if silently telling people.

The completion of the stone bridge is a leap after the ancient crossing of the Wenhe River, ending the history that people on both sides of the Wenhe River can only rely on boats and promoting the rapid rise of Dawenkou as an industrial and commercial town. According to the Records of Taian County, Dawenkou was upgraded from a village to a cooperative only in the Ming Dynasty, and there were more than 100 cooperatives in the Yuan Dynasty. It can be seen that Dawenkou was just a small village at that time. What brings prosperity to Dawenkou is traffic, and the "Shi Ming Bridge" is more important.

The bridge deck is paved with feldspar strips, and the strips are connected and fixed with flat iron, which is very firm. It was first built in 1567 and completed in 1573.