Daxi Bridge Audio Guide

Daxi Bridge: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Dasi Bridge

   Welcome to Dasi Bridge, known locally as 大溪橋, a Baroque-style suspension bridge in Daxi District, Taoyuan City. It carries you across the Dahan River, and it works as a kind of grand front door to the old town. One end meets Rui'an Road, Section One. The other opens toward Daxi Old Street. It looks like a single, elegant crossing, but it has been rebuilt more than once. Its story runs from a humble bridge of bamboo and stone, through a Japanese-era steel cable bridge, to the ornamental walkway you see today. It sits just below Zhongzheng Park, so as you walk, you are moving between the town's everyday life and its riverside scenery. Over the next few stops we will follow that story. We will look at where the bridge began, at how it was reimagined at the start of this century, and at the views and evening glow that make people linger here.

2. 02

   From Bamboo Cages to Steel Cables

   Let's go back to the beginning. The first crossing here dates to the Qing dynasty. It was a plank bridge made of bamboo and wood, held up by bamboo cages filled with stones stacked into piers. It was a modest structure, but it was the main way Daxi residents reached the world beyond the river. It also tied together the communities on the east and west banks. Then came the Japanese colonial period. In 1934, the Japanese rebuilt the bridge as a double-span steel cable suspension bridge. This is the form that the bridge you see today was designed to recall. Time was not kind to it, though. New routes opened, including Wuling Bridge and the Second Outer Ring Road, and Dasi Bridge slowly lost its role as a key transport link. Typhoons and floods added to the strain. The bridge went through two rebuildings before the story took a new turn.

3. 03

   A Community Rebuilds Its Bridge

   The bridge you cross today is the result of community effort. In 2001, Daxi's community development movement, known as community total construction, led the project to rebuild it. The district office and the highway bureau were involved in the planning. The idea was to turn a bridge that no longer had a major traffic role into a place with character. The new bridge copies the look of the Japanese-era suspension bridge, but it is built with modern reinforced concrete, with steel cables hanging along both sides. Its Baroque style deliberately echoes the facades of Daxi Old Street. Look down and you will see a red brick walkway. Look to the two ends and you will find retro arched entrances with relief decoration. Tall flower-bed archways rise over the pedestrian path as well. The bridge is also meant for walkers and cyclists. It links up with the bicycle path along the left bank of the Dahan River, so it is easy to slow down and take it in on foot.

4. 04

   Views, Sunsets and Lantern Light

   Stop in the middle of the bridge and look outward. The open view over the Dahan River is one of Daxi's signature sights. You can pick out Shimen Reservoir, Kanjin Bridge and Wuling Bridge. On a perfectly clear day, you may even spot Guanyin Mountain, far away near Tamsui. A century ago, one of the Eight Scenes of Kanjin was the sight of sailboats returning home on this stretch of river. That scene is gone, but a poem by Wen Wuqing keeps it alive. In it, the sails flutter like drawn bows, the boatmen's calls urge on the wind along both banks, and Daxi looks like a painting. Today the bridge is a lovely place to watch the sunset. After dark, the cable lights come on, and the bridge glows in many colors with a distinctly exotic feel. That glow has earned it the nickname Lovers' Bridge. The lighting hours change with the seasons and follow the notice from the Daxi District Office.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you move on, take one more look at the bridge as a whole. Part of it is Qing-era memory, part is Japanese-era engineering, and part is a community's decision at the start of this century to give an old crossing a second life. Try walking it in both directions. Notice how the Baroque arches echo the old street's facades, and how the feeling changes between the Rui'an Road end and the Old Street end. Then lean on the railing and let the river view settle. From here, the Old Street is just across the bridge, and the riverside bicycle path runs alongside. Go and see what else in Daxi carries the same layered story.