Tongji Weir is located near a small village called ‘Weitou’ in the southern part of Zhejiang’s Bilu Plain, constructed in the fourth year of the Tianjian era of the Southern Liang Dynasty (505 AD), and has a history of 1500 years. It is one of China’s ancient large-scale water conservancy projects and is known as the world’s earliest arch dam. The dam is arch-shaped, measuring 275 meters in length, 25 meters in width, and 2.
5 meters in height. Initially made of wooden planks, it was later transformed into a stone dam during the Southern Song Dynasty. Tongji Weir primarily serves for irrigation and is a comprehensive water conservancy project that includes a water-blocking dam, water intake gates, a three-hole bridge, channels, and leaf holes. The Bilu Plain has a terrain that slopes from high in the southwest to low in the northeast, with a drop of 20 meters. Tongji Weir was built according to this geographical feature, achieving self-irrigation without the need for external assistance. The upstream catchment area of Tongji Weir is 2150 square kilometers, capable of blocking over 200,000 cubic meters of water into the canal each day, irrigating more than 40,000 acres of farmland in the central and southern parts of the Bilu Plain. According to local villagers, the Zhuge family, who have been guarding the weir for generations, reside by Tongji Weir and intervene whenever they find any destructive acts such as channel blockage or tree felling. During maintenance in the 1950s, ancient giant pine foundations, known as the ‘sleeping ox’ method of pine wood padding, were discovered at the bottom of the dam. The site is open all year round, accessible 24/7.Tongji Weir: An Ancient Chinese Water Conservancy Project
Tongji Weir is located near a small village called ‘Weitou’ in the southern part of Zhej[...]
