The bridge pavilions
With tiered roofs.
mhblatt2 — CC BY 2.0 · gill_penney — CC BY 2.0 · Dom~Dom from Sydney, Australia — CC BY 2.0 · EditQ — CC BY-SA 4.0 · 三猎 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anja Disseldorp — CC BY 2.0 · EditQ — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Zhangzhugang — CC BY-SA 3.0
The most famous of the «wind and rain bridges» built by the Dong people of southern China, a covered bridge completed in 1912 over a small river between two of the «Chengyang Eight Villages». It combines bridge, corridor, veranda and pavilion: five pavilions with tiered roofs stand on its stone piers, linked by tiled timber galleries where villagers shelter from rain and sun and sit to talk. It is 64.4 metres long with a walkway 3.4 metres wide, standing about ten metres above the river, and is also called the Yongji Bridge and the Panlong, «coiled dragon», Bridge; the writer Guo Moruo wrote a poem about it on seeing it. Around the bridge lie wooden Dong villages centred on drum towers, with rice fields, and visitors walk the paths between the villages and watch local song and dance shows. The Chengyang Eight Villages ticket with the area bus costs about CNY 90, or about 120 with the folk show, per visitor guides.
With tiered roofs.
And drum towers.
On both banks.
Chengyang Eight Villages, Sanjiang County, north of Liuzhou city, Guangxi
Yes, the Dong villages of Sanjiang and Zhaoxing lie fairly close on either side of the Guangxi-Guizhou border and fit into a trip of two or three days.
Choices are few in the villages and local cooking uses pork, so bring food and look in Liuzhou for restaurants run by Muslims under the halal sign.