艺圃yipu Garden, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province By 苏州陈杰-POTATO

Traditional architecture in North Vietnam (Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Hai Phong, Thai Binh). Credit to Instagram account im.phuc_vu.

Minh Thành pagoda, Pleiku, Vietnam. Credit to Nguyen Thanh Luan.

Thanh Toàn tile-roofed bridge, Thủy Thanh village

Located in Thừa Thiên-Huế province in central Vietnam, this historical countryside bridge was built in 1776 under the patronage of Mrs. Tran Thi Dao. A local philanthropist and a wife of a high-ranking court official, Mrs. Dao sponsored the bridge to be built to make it easier for the villagers to cross the canal to the fields on the other bank. Her enterprise was received with praise from the emperor and in 1925 King Khải Định decreed an altar to be built her honor at the center of the bridge.

The structure itself is supported by 18 wooden pillars and is divided into 7 room-like compartments. The stone bridgeheads are pigmented with yellow that is associated with prosperity and royalty in Vietnamese culture, and embellished with flower-themed and angular spiral reliefs with a poem written in Chinese characters on each side of the archway. The top part of the entrance features classical symbols and red, which in turn symbols good fortune and celebration. The roof is ornamented with traditional reliefs at the ends of the green glazed roof tiles and intricate roof decorations depicting dragons over the two entrances and a pair of phoenixes spreading their wings and facing the sun at the center.

The bridge is acclaimed for the high artistic, cultural and historical value it possesses and nowadays it's a popular site for festivals and tourism with hundred-year old banyan trees and traditional Vietnamese lanterns lining the location.

Recently in February 2021 a restoration process for the bridge was completed. The monument was given a fresh layer of paint, the most noticeable change being the vibrant red colour being added to the pillars, bridgeheads and interior roof. In addition golden details to the altar and silver decorations on the outside were restored.

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By Tatsolbe

Saint Petersburg, Russia

by Keiro Hamura

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(AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

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