水城天生桥

Shuicheng Natural Bridge - Tianxian Bridge

Useful Information

Location:	Jinpen, Liupanshui, Guizhou. From Liupanshui, motorway G7611 exit 337 发箐 follow X232 north 65 km. The road is narrow and winds its way through the hills with many hairpin bends, so allow 1 hour for the journey. (26.891469, 105.009884)
Open:	no restrictions. [2025]
Fee:	free. [2025]
Classification:	Natural Bridge
Light:	n/a
Dimension:	H=135 m, W=60 m, L=30 m.
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	yes
Bibliography:
Address:	Shuicheng Natural Bridge, Jinpen, Liupanshui, Guizhou, Tel: +86-.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

水城天生桥 (Shuǐchéng tiānshēngqiáo, Shuicheng Natural Bridge, Water City Natural Bridge) is a natural bridge, which is actually a road bridge. The locals also called it 天仙橋 (Tiānxiān qiáo, Celestial Immortal Bridge). Tianxian is often translated as fairy, but Tianxian is actually not a fairy in the western sense, it’s a mythical immortal being from the Chinese legends. A better translation of 天仙 is Celestial Immortal or simply Immortal, and it is actually one of five different kinds of immortals in Chinese legends. Many strange structures, like this bridge, are thus thought to be the work of such immortals, hence the name.

The mountainside is cut into two plateaus by a steep gorge which is 150 m deep, the Ganhe River flows through this gorge. Another name of the bridge is thus 干河天生桥 (Gàn hé tiānshēngqiáo, Ganhe River Natural Bridge). But this gorge is actually a collapsed cave passage, the walls are cave walls and show speleothems. Only a small piece of the ceiling remains, and it forms a natural bridge across the gorge. The limestone layer is only 15 m thick but massive enough to handle the single lane paved road which was built across.

The site is a scenic area with the weird name 天生桥景区 (Tiānshēngqiáo jǐngqū, Natural Bridge Scenic Area). Actually that’s not a name, it’s the term which describes what it is, a natural bridge. There are hundreds of natural bridges all over the world, and such a name inevitably leads to confusion. In fact, there are several scenic areas in China with the identical name, and some of them don't even have a natural bridge. This one is even mixed up by the famous Chinese travel website Baidu with another natural bridge in Nanjing which we listed as Karst Nanjing Tianshengqiao. The page has photos of two sites which are 1,500 km apart and have nothing to do with each other except for the identical name. Even the comments show pictures of one site and explain the other. This is proof enough that this strange custom is extremely confusing. In China, where the names of such sites are actually determined by the government, it could be easily avoided.

And another strange custom of China, like many other sites it is "number 1 in China and the World". In this case we were able to find out to which superlative this actually refers to, and while we cannot verify the superlative, it seems to be correct. With a height of 150 m from the river to the road it is the highest Natural Bridge which is crossed by a road. The way how they determined this is weird and a little funny:

Now a few words about the roads. This area is populated by the Tujia minority, and they live in small hamlets which dot the hills. The whole area north of Liupanshui with a diameter of about 60 km is not crossed by a single major road. There are a few minor roads which are narrow and wind their way through the hills with many hairpin bends. The X232 actually leads to this place, and it has an official outlook which offers a great view of the natural bridge. It’s also possible to turn off and cross the bridge by car, the road is single lane, but it is a regular road which connects several hamlets. Its actually quite unspectacular to drive across the bridge, as you have no view, there are rocks or vegetation on both sides. The bridge is marked by some rocks, and if you park at the road, you can walk up the rocks to a wooden ceiling, where you can finally enjoy the outlook from the top of the bridge to the north.