Guīyáng

Guiyang stands at the meeting of the Bai River and the Xiang in southern Hunan. Its history is closely tied to crossings and the settlement gathered around this junction. The Zhuangyuan Bridge joined the town's Dahe and Xiaohe quarters across the local watercourses, making the maintenance of a crossing part of the practical life of the riverside community.

The bridge was first built in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, during the Ming dynasty. Floods destroyed it, and reconstruction in 1728 and again in 1808 failed to give the crossing lasting security: both rebuilt bridges were also swept away. The sequence records the repeated investment of labour and resources in keeping the town connected despite the destructive force of its rivers. Later tradition associated the bridge's name with a successful imperial examination candidate who supposedly exchanged verses with its masons. This story belongs to the town's commemorative tradition, alongside the more firmly dated history of construction, flood damage and repair.