◎Xuebu Bridge

The bridge is located on Beiguan Street over the Qin River and serves as the main traffic route connecting the north and south of the city. Formerly known as Niushoushui,the Qin River flew from Zishan,ran through Handan in the east,and finally into Fuyang River. In the old days,the river was a popular landscape in Handan with willows on both sides. It was originally a wooden bridge. To make it stronger,people transformed it into an arch stone bridge in 1617. The bridge is 32 meters long,9 meters wide and 8 meters high,with 19 balustrades and 18 balusters on each side,all carved with historical figures and animals such as lions and monkeys. There are three major archways with four small bridge openings attached to both sides of the archway and a dragon head looking down at the center of each archway. Though the bridge is not large in scale,it is solid and beautifully shaped with the artistic style of typical Chinese bridges. Next to the bridge is a stone sculpture of a young man crawling behind a couple walking gracefully,a vivid depiction of the ancient Chinese story “Han Dan Xue Bu” (Imitating another without success and losing what used to be one's own ability),which gave the bridge its name.(https://www.daowen.com)