The Chengyang Wind-and-Rain Bridge spans the Linxi River on stone piers, its wooden superstructure forming five linked pavilions under upturned eaves — the kind of covered walkway that makes you wish every river crossing worked this way. It was built in 1912 by the Dong minority villagers of the eight surrounding settlements and is considered one of the finest examples of traditional Dong bridge architecture anywhere in China. The structure is maintained and still in regular use by locals crossing between the rice fields and the villages.
The bridge is at its most photogenic in the early morning before the day-trippers arrive from Sanjiang, when mist rises off the river and the water buffalo stand knee-deep near the banks. In the afternoon it fills with locals sitting on the benches inside the pavilions, chatting and watching the water. The setting — limestone peaks behind, terraced rice fields on both banks — is genuinely beautiful, and the bridge is the kind of thing that rewards twenty minutes of patient looking over a quick photograph.