Lugou (Marco Polo) Bridge

12th-century stone bridge southwest of Beijing, with 281 carved-stone lions. The site of the 1937 incident that began the Sino-Japanese War.

The Lugou Bridge — called Marco Polo Bridge in most Western sources — crosses the Yongding River about 15 kilometres southwest of central Beijing. The current stone structure was completed in 1192 during the Jin dynasty, making it one of the oldest surviving stone arch bridges in northern China. It is 265 metres long and supported by 11 arches. The balustrades are decorated with 281 stone lions, each individually carved and varying slightly in posture and expression — Marco Polo, who travelled through China in the late 13th century, described the bridge and its lions in his account of his journeys, though the accuracy of his specific claims about China is debated.

The bridge's historical weight in China today derives overwhelmingly from the events of 7 July 1937. A night military exercise by Japanese troops near Wanping — whose walled fortress town sits at the eastern bridgehead — escalated into an exchange of gunfire. The precise sequence of events remains disputed, but the 'Marco Polo Bridge Incident' is the date Chinese history marks as the beginning of the full-scale Second Sino-Japanese War, which killed between 14 and 20 million Chinese civilians and combatants over the following eight years. The date is formally commemorated annually, and 7 July anniversaries draw large gatherings.

The Wanping Fortress, whose Ming-dynasty walls are well preserved, contains the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression — a large, soberly presented military and historical museum covering the 1937–1945 period. It is one of the more substantial war-memorial museums in China outside of Nanjing. The bridge itself is walkable (entry ticket required); the lion-counting and the river views are pleasant. Combine with the Wanping Fortress and museum for a meaningful three-to-four-hour visit.