| TALAT JIN BRIDGE |
| Saphan Talat Jin or the Bridge of the Chinese Market is located on the city island in Pratu Chai.Sub-district. The brick bridge was built over Khlong Pratu Jin (also called Khlong Pratu Khao Pluak in the northern stretch) which connected the old Lopburi River (later Khlong Mueang or City Canal) in the north (near Wat Tha Sai) with the Chao Phraya River in the south at Pratu Chin. This canal was filled in last century and as thus at present inexistent, with the exception of a small stretch of water between Wat Tha Sai and Wat Racha Praditsathan, close to its former mouth, called Pratu Khao Pluak. Only some brick work of the former bridges remain as a last witness of the past. The bridge linked the Moorish quarter with the Chinese quarter on the island. Major Chinese communities were located in the east of Ayutthaya and lived on both banks of the Pa Sak River. Close in its vicinity towards Pratu Jin was a Chinese market selling enameled brass [1]. Brick work of the arched bridge still can be seen in situ. The site is located south of the brick work of the Chikun Bridge, an easy to find location near the round point in central Ayutthaya. Johannes Vingboons (c.1616 - 1670), a Dutch cartographer, created a painting named "Afbeldinge der stadt Iudiad Hooft des Choonincrick Siam" published in Vingboons Atlas around 1665. Although the city’s shape is distorted in this painting, the "Bridge of the Chinese Market" can clearly be seen. References: [1] Discovering Ayutthaya - Charnvit Kasetsiri & Michael Wright (2007) - page 149. |
| Text & photographs by Tricky Vandenberg - October 2009 |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
