Descriptive text and documentary photography are carefully interwoven in this overview of vernacular bridges surviving in China. Here vernacular refers to traditional construction as an empirical art practiced before the advent of modern engineering. Bridges across China's spatial and temporal geography are presented as cultural artifacts, but “unlike a building …wherein the structure is a means to an end … the structure of any bridge is as much a means as an end” (p. 13). The book is divided into three parts, starting with a general discussion of bridges as differentiated in terms of materials, structure and purpose. Avoiding technical terminology, clear descriptive language and photography are used to examine step-on block bridges, rope and iron-chain suspension bridges, stone and timber beam bridges, floating or pontoon bridges, cantilevered beam bridges, stone arch, segmental-arch and multiple arch bridges, interlocked timber arch or rainbow bridges, covered bridges and garden bridges. There is also an interesting discussion of the effects of modernization and recent efforts at preservation, restoration and even historical evocation – the new construction of “faux historical bridges” to evoke the past.

In part two, the author and photographer examine bridges as “living architecture” within a cultural landscape. Folk practices including fengshui, building magic, ritual, worship, as well as protective amulets and auspicious emblems are introduced. The use of bridges as public gathering places, temples or shrines, or markets demonstrate that they were ingrained in daily life in the same way as temples, city gates, markets and other community buildings. The similar use of fengshui and building magic in constructing both bridges and houses is additional corroboration. This too brief section also discusses the historical relation between Buddhist patronage and bridge building, and ends with a glimpse of “Red Army bridges.” The latter were often traditional bridges that acquired new cultural meaning within the patriotic landscape along the historic route of the Long March, and have now become attractions of “Red Tourism.”

The final and substantial part of the book features case studies of individual or regional groups of bridges. The geographical, cultural, economic, social, religious and historical circumstances of each bridge is introduced whenever possible using textual sources along with contemporary and historical photographs, paintings, prints and other visual documents. Each bridge is then assessed according to the general terms discussed in parts one and two, reversing the earlier general-to-particular approach. Many of the bridges in this section had been mentioned earlier, but now they are listed geographically, starting from Beijing, then moving to Gansu and Sichuan provinces, down the east coast from Jiangsu province, including the spectacular and covered bridges only recently discovered in southern Zhejiang and northern Fujian provinces, and ending with the incomparable “Wind-and-Rain” bridges of the minority Dong ethnic people in Guangxi province. A review of the origins of each bridge and its subsequent repairs, rebuildings or alterations reveals a complex material and cultural history that makes any chronological ordering of bridges problematic.

Text and image are interwoven to create a rich fabric designed for both general and scholarly audiences. An introduction and conclusion would have been helpful, yet, by not providing them, all readers are free to weave their own interpretations. Such an approach has its advantage, but it also makes it hard to understand the author's methodology and ordering. For example, the geographic order of part three is only recognized through the numbering of the bridge sites on a front-matter map (not mentioned in text). The correspondence between text and image is also sometimes imperfect. There are instances where the best illustration is found far from a particular description.

Clearly written, the text is as important for what is covered as for the many questions that are implied. A look at the map of the featured bridges shows that much of China is unrepresented. One wonders if there are no notable bridges in those regions, or, more likely, that there are many more bridges yet to be found. Another question concerns the nature of the bridge builders. Family workshops responsible for covered bridges in the Zhejiang–Fujian region are mentioned, but one wonders if bridge building was a specialized profession, or did the same craftsmen and workshops also build houses and work as carpenters? The text also notes many historical facts and local stories, but unfortunately the editorial decision not to provide reference notes denies access to valuable sources.

One of this study's best values lies in documenting imperiled structures that are continually in need of repair and may soon disappear due to natural disaster or human development. The quality of Ong's photographs for many bridges is unprecedented. In most cases, the text and images allow an understanding of the bridges' beauty, cultural life and structure; however, they are inadequate in describing the interlocked timber arch or rainbow bridge. Such a bridge is pictured in Zhang Zeduan's famous 12th-century(?) painting, Qingming shanghe tu, but its actual design had been believed forgotten until living examples recently came to light (pp. 219–43). The structure has a series of transverse beams that both carry and are carried on alternating sets of crisscrossing longitudinal beams. In other words, each transverse unit carries the weight of longitudinal beam ends, and transfers that weight to the middle of adjacent longitudinal beams. Weight and support are interwoven in a network of counteracting forces. Hard to describe, a simple diagram illustrating this ingenious structural system is needed. It should be noted that this system of interwoven beams echoes the use of counterweighted cantilever beams over fulcrums to allow roof eaves to project out from buildings surviving from as early as the Tang dynasty. The rainbow bridge structure is in fact an inverted, curved roof eave, and this type of counterweight-beam system seems to have been developed only in China, where it was used in both buildings and bridges.