Travel with Echo: Best Night View of Chengdu - Anshun Bridge over Funan River

When temperatures hit sweltering highs in summer，people tends to go out rather in the early morning or after sunset in the evening rather than in day time. But the nightlife in summer is more colorful than other seasons as well. Street Vendors with various goods, Street singing and dancing, and other interesting featured activities which would last to 10:00 pm or even midnight. I went to one of the Landmarks of Chengdu — Anshun Bridge on a Sunday evening, which is built over the Funan River near Jiuyanqiao bar street with the best night view of Chengdu.

Located next to the Hejiang Pavilion of Funan River, Anshun Bridget is near Sichuan Conservatory Of Music and Sichuan University, about 1.5km to Wangjianglou Park, 1.3km to Taikoo Li, and 1.7km to Chunxi Road. As you could see from the map, it’s almost in the center of Chengdu downtown.

Anshun Bridge Chengdu Location Map

Anshun Bridge (Chinese: 安顺桥)，literally translated as "Bridge of Peace and Propitiousness", is located beside Hejiang Pavilion along Funan River (Jin River). The Anshun bridge has a long history. And the original building can be traced back to 1746 (the Yuan Dynasty). During Marco Polo's travel to China, Anshun Langqiao is one of the four bridges that has impressed him deeply. The bridge had been ravaged by the flood several times and got reconstructed in 2003 as the replacement of the old one built in the 1980s. The bridge is 81 meters long and 6 meters wide, with the ancient style of Ming and Qing Dynasties. The bridge handrail is carved with beautiful patterns like plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum which represents traditional Chinese folk culture. The bridge pier is equipped with two water beast statues to sit on the bridges' pier, which was believed to suppress the flood by the ancient Chinese. Each side of the bridge has an archaize memorial archway, and the style of the bridge highly concentrates the essence of the Chinese architectural style.

Step on Anshun Bridge

The Anshun Bridge itself is a restaurant for fine dining. Although it will be pricier than other ones, the food and service are terrific with English speaking staff and a romantic atmosphere, especially have dinner in The Bridge, you will enjoy the beautiful night view along the river bank.

The Bridge Restaurant

Overlooking Funan River from Anshun Bridge

It’s a good place to taste the local Sichuan Cuisine as well as enjoying the nightscape of Chengdu, of course, the good things come with “good” price, and the average spending is about RMB600 per person there for a fancy lunch or dinner.

Around the Bridge along the river bank, there were many young street singers singing and immerse themselves in the light round, as if they were giving a live show on the stage. People Stand by or sit down to watch their performance, I give it a name as “坝坝音乐会”, which means a concert in the open square or pedestrian street to attract an audience from the nearby area.

Singers by the River bank

The Best place to photography the nightscape of Anshun Bridge is Hejiang Pavilion, which is about 5 minutes' walk from the bridge.

Hejiang Pavilion and Anshun Bridge

There are many fancy 5-star hotels along Binjiang Road, like Sofitel, Wanda Reign, and Shangri-La. Among them, the Shangri-La has the perfect location. As the Anshun Bridge is across the road behind the hotel. Guests who stay in this hotel could go to Hejiang Pavilion, Anshun Bridge, and even have fun in Languifang Bar Street and Jiuyanqiao Bar Street within a few minutes’ walk distances. Nearby is Shuijingfang, an ancient site of Sichuan liquor factory enduring the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties?

Shuijingfang Museum

The fancy light is designed by modern people in almost cities with various purposes: attracting tourists; beautify the city appearance, highlight the vitality of the city… But the light in this area I think is to light the history, to remind people to learn the history and culture of this city. Chengdu develops very fast in recent years, modern new tall buildings growing up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. They give a new look at Chengdu, make Chengdu an international metropolis like many big cities in China or even the world. But the history and culture is the soul of the city to make it distinct from any other cities, even though with a similar population, urban size，advanced and convenient facilities, and economic volume.