The Dujiangyan irrigation system, built in the third century BC and still working, is the reason the Chengdu plain feeds a large part of China. Most visitors come for the engineering - the artificial levee that splits the Min river, the channel cut through the mountain, the weir that controls the flow - and see the two structures that sit at the heart of the site only in passing: a long suspension bridge across the river, and a temple on the hillside above it dedicated to the men who built the system.
The Anlan bridge
The bridge crosses the Min at the point where the river divides, linking the two halves of the site. It is a cable footbridge in the local tradition: originally made with cables twisted from bamboo, anchored on timber frames, with a plank deck and hand ropes, and rebuilt in steel cable in the twentieth century while keeping the form and the sway. It is long, narrow and moves underfoot as people walk, and it is one of the most enjoyable five minutes of any visit to the site. From the middle you look upstream at the diversion levee and downstream at the channels the system creates.
The Erwang Temple
On the hill above the bridge stands the temple of the two kings, named for Li Bing, the Qin official who directed the construction of the system, and his son, who is credited with completing and maintaining it. The temple is a hillside complex of halls, courtyards and terraces built into the slope, with images of the two men, steles, inscriptions and a garden of ancient trees, from which there are views down over the whole waterworks. It is a working temple with incense and worshippers alongside the visitors, and it is the best place to understand how the project has been remembered: as an act of engineering and as an act of good government by two men who are still honoured two thousand years later.
Practical notes
Dujiangyan is about an hour from Chengdu by high-speed train or by road, and the site is large enough to need three hours; the bridge and the temple are at the southern end of the route and can be reached in either direction. The site charges one admission covering the waterworks, the bridge, the temple and the parks around them, opens daily, and is very busy at weekends and during the spring festival period. The train from Chengdu is fast and frequent, and the station is a short bus or taxi ride from the entrance, which makes this one of the easiest day trips from the city.
