厦门简介--English

1: 厦门英文介绍 About Xiamen02: 厦门八大景八小景 Tour Xamen03: 鼓浪屿英文介绍1 Gulangyu Island04: 鼓浪屿英文介绍2 Gulangyu Island05: 厦门市市鸟白鹭City Bird-Egrets06: 厦门市市花三角梅英文介绍City Flower-Bougainvillea glabra07: 厦门南普陀英文介绍 Nanputuo Temple08: 集美旅游景点英文介绍 Jimei Tourist Area09: 同安旅游景点英文介绍 Tong’an Tourist Area01.About Xiamen厦门英文介绍Xiamen is an island city with a rich and dramatic history, replete with pirates, rebel leaders, and European merchants. Now linked to mainland Fujian by a causeway, Xiamen retains a strong international flavor. Known in the West as Amoy, Xiamen has a long history as a port city, and later became a center of British trade in the 19th century. Their foreign settlements, later taken over by Japanese invaders at the start of World War II, were established on the nearby small Gulangyu Island. Many of the old treaty-port and colonial buildings in Western styles survive. Xiamen was declared one of China’s first Special Economic Zones in the early 1980’s, taking advantage of the city’s heritage as a trading center and the proximity to Taiwan. Today Xiamen is one of China’s most attractive and best-maintained resort cities.Xiamen was founded in 1394 at the beginning of the Ming dynasty as a center of defense against coastal pirates. Its prosperity was due to its deepwater sheltered harbor, that supplanted nearby Quanzhou, the port that had been the center of the maritime trade with the Indies.In the mid-17th century, Xiamen and Gulangyu Island became a stronghold of Zheng Chenggong, known in the West as Koxinga, a Ming loyalist who held out against the Manchu invaders until being driven to Taiwan. Born in Japan to a Chinese pirate father and a Japanese mother, Zheng became allied with holdout Ming princes in the south who hoped for a restoration. He built up a resistance force of some 7,000 junks and a mixed force ofthree-quarters of a million troops and pirates. In 1661 he drove the Dutch from Taiwan and set up another base there, before his death in 1662.After the Opium Wars Xiamen became one of the first treaty ports to be opened to foreign trade and settlement following the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. Gulangyu Island was transformed into an international settlement, where many Victorian and Neoclassical style buildings still survive. The city’s prosperity was due both to trade and to wealth sent back by Xiamen’s substantial emigrant community of overseas Chinese.Prosperity returned to Xiamen in the early 1980’s when Xiamen was designated one of the four Special Economic Zones (SEZs).02. Tour Xiamen (旅游厦门，八大景八小景)Xiamen is a well-known tourist port city in the Southeast coast of China. It is one of the Cleanest Cities of China, the Garden Cities of China, the National Environmental Protection Model Cities, and the best sightseeing cities in China. Not only being wealthy with travel resources, Xiamen has also temperate weather, fast and convenient transport and communication, and complete travel establishments.In the old times, there were "Eight Major Landscapes" and "Eight Minor Landscapes" "Landscapes Beyond Landscapes" in Xiamen and altogether 24scenic spots were included in the three general terms. Some of the 24 sights, such as "Wonderland of Gulang", "Five Old Gentlemen Reaching the Clouds", "Watching Sunrise on Hongji Summit", "Night Moon by Tiger Brook", "White Deer Spurting Smoke", still can be traced today.By reorganizing old landscapes and developing new sceneries, Xiamen has formed five main Tourist areas-- Gulangyu Island Tourist Area, Nanputuo Temple Tourist Area, Wangshi Rock Tourist Area, Huangcuo Tourist Area and Jimei Tourist Area. Beside its richful travel resources and pleasant weather, Xiamen also provides fast and convenient transportation and communication, and complete travel establishments. All makes Xiamen one of the most suitable cities for investors and tourists in China.03.Gulangyu Island 鼓浪屿英文介绍1A ten-minute ferry ride off the southwest side of Xiamen, the 2 square km (3/4 sq. mile) Gulangyu Island (Island of Blown Waves) was the center for foreign communities who settled here after 1842. Many built Western-style mansions, churches, warehouses, and government buildings which still survive. Sunlight Rock (Riguang Yan) dominates the island from its modest 93-meter height. The island includes a statue of Koxinga and a Koxinga Museum (Koxinga bowuguan), which documents the career of that pirate turned resistance leader. The Xiamen Museum (Xiamen Bowuguan) includes more than a thousand exhibits, including porcelain and jade collections. On the southern shore of the island is the Shuzhuang Garden, which once belonged to a Taiwanese businessman who moved to the island after the Japanese took over Taiwan in 1895.04.Gulangyu Island 鼓浪屿英文介绍2Gulangyu, separated from Xiamen by the 500-metre-wide Egret River, with an area of 1.77 square kilometres, enjoys a lauditory title "Garden on the Sea." The original name of the islet was Yuan Zhou Zi. In the Ming Dynasty it was renamed Gulang, meaning ''drum waves", because the holes in the southwestern reefs hit by the waves make sounds like the drum beating.Overlapping peaks foil the blue water, white clouds, green trees and bright flowers. The air in the islet is fresh. The entire place is free from any sorts of vehicles and is particularly quiet. All these render an atmosphere of a fairyland.The roar of the waves breaks on the rocks. Impressive melodies surrounding and lingering on this island make famous for its piano-laden past. As a place of residence for Westerners during Xiamen's colonial past, Gulangyu is famous for its architecture and for being home to China's largest piano museum. It is known as the piano island because people here love the piano. As early as 1913, students in schools run by foreigners started learning the piano. The enthusiasm for music later spread to more ordinary people on the island. Many piano families have since then come into being and produced accomplished musicians. And the number of the pianos possessed is in the leading place in the nation, though there is only a population of 20,000 people.No tourist can afford to miss one attraction located on the island -- the nation's largest piano museum. Divided into two exhibition halls, the museum guides visitors through a vivid history of the instrument with displays and illustrations. All different types of pianos such as miniature pianos, automatic pianos, accordion pianos and round-shaped pianos, are on display.The architecture in the islet varies greatly in style, Chinese and foreign. Thus the islet has a laudatory title "the World Architecture Museum" Covered in green all the year round, it's charming, elegant, secluded and serene. A great variety of villas stand shrouded by lush wood resembling numerous jadeites embellished upon a piece of verdant silk brocade. Hundreds of flowers grown on the Riguang Rock (Sunlight Rock) vie withone another for beauty. With the caressing sea breeze, it's a quite cool place in hot summer. At the foot of the rock, there's the Memorial Hall to honor the national Hero Zheng Chenggong.Today, Gulangyu is listed as one of the nation's major scenic spots. The main sites of interest here include the Sunlit Rock, Shuzhuang Park, Gangzihou Bathing Beach and Memorial Hall to Zheng Chenggong, which are visited annually by millions of people from all parts of the country and the world. For people living in the hustle and bustle of today's metropolis, citizens on this island seem to live in a paradise with a relaxing, healthy and placid lifestyle. Find more in our detailed introduction of the major attractions in Gulangyu Tourist Area.05. City Bird-Egrets 厦门市市鸟白鹭Egrets are the world's rare birds. They belong to heron family of bird class. Xiamen boasts small egrets, middle egrets, large egrets, Chinese egrets and gray egrets, which dwell are the only five types of herons ever seen in China. People choose to call them egrets (Bailu in Chinese)collectively because they, except the gray egrets, which have dark gray body-feathers, have beautiful snow-white feathers. The small and midium-sized egrets are of the largest numbers and are seen more frequently. On October 23 of 1986, at the 23rd Session of the Standing Committee of the 8th Municipal People's Congress it was decided that the egret be the City Bird of Xiamen.06.City Flower-Bougainvillea glabra 厦门市市花三角梅英文介绍The City Flower was decided by the Standing Committee of the Eighth People's Congress of Xiamen City on October 23, 1986 in its 20th conference. The scientific name of the flower is Bougain Villeasp. It is an evergreen clamber bush or a hanging down shrub, which belongs to the category of bougain of the bongainvillea family. It is a wood nature liana. The nature of its leaves has the luster. Its flower is small and blooms on the top. The flower usually grows in clusters in the bud plate. The three big bud plates are very distinctive, constructing a major object sight for enjoying. In ancient times, it was called "Nine Layers of Vine". It is called "Leaves Tiny Flower" and "Triangular Flower" in North China and it was called "Bougain" as translated in sound from English in Hongkong. It was originally planted in Brazil of South America and it is a long time since it was imported and planted in China in 1972.It has a great number of varieties, and large amount of colors. It has the nurture color of red, orange, yellow, white and purple, and it has the shape of single petal flower, double petal flower and mottled plate flower etc. It couples hardness with softness, and it is simple and unadorned. It is easy to plant and possesses such variety of colors, so it can be used to make potted landscape. As a result, to use the Triangular Shaped Plum Blossom as the city flower, to plant it broadly and to take care of it will not only afforest and beautify Xiamen, but also better show the style and features of Xiamen, the character of Xiamen people and the rapid Development of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone.07. Nanputuo Temple厦门南普陀英文介绍Situated at the foot of Wulao Peak on the southern end of Xiamen is nanputuo Temple. The temple's Heavenly King Hall, the main prayer hall, the Hall of Great Compassion and the Shrine of Buddhist Scriptures are all graced with painted brackets.The temple was first built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). And rebuilt during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), it is now an imposing multi-layered trapezoidal structure that overlooks the sea. The Shrine of Buddhist Scriptures houses a huge collection of Buddhist cultural relics, including a Burmese jade carving of the Buddha and many important Buddhist literature. It is one of the sacred places of Buddhism in Southern Fujian. Inside the temple there are the Heaven King's Hall, the Daxiong Hall, the Great Compassion Hall, all of which are built in an exquisite and grand style.Enshrined in these halls are the statues of Maitreya, Sanshi Reverend Buddha, Thousand-handed Guanyin (Bodhisattva), Four Kings of Heaven, and the eighteen arhats. Although all are serious and solemn in appearance, each is distinctly different from another. The temple attracts a large number of pilgrims at home and abroad. The excellent craftsmanship of the Thousand-handed Guanyin is marked by its thousand hands and thousand eyes and glistening golden color.As to the Pavilion where Buddhist scriptures are kept, it has a rich collection of the historical articles of Buddhism. such as classics, statues of Buddhas, bronze bells from the Song Dynasty, calligraphic works and paintings from the ancient times. Among them, "Intriguing Lotus Scripture" written in blood in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and the statue of Guanyin in white porcelain, a masterpiece of He Chaosong,are most valuable.In the temple are preserved many inscriptions, among which the stone inscriptions written by Chen Di and Sheng Yourong in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and the one on a stone stele written by Emperor of the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty are most famous. Behind the temple, inscribed on the wall of a rock is a large word "Buddha" which is 4.66 metres in height and 3.33 metres in width. And farther behind, high up on the mountain stands a screen of five peaks coloured by green trees and bamboos and marked by serene valleys and rocks of pleasing shapes. They are called "Five Old Gentlemen Reaching the Clouds," and are one of the eight grand sights of Xiamen. Coming to the top, you not only have a view of the mountain undulating in the wind, but also the view of the sea surging in the distance.Five Old Gentlemen PeaksBehind Nanputuo Temple, inscribed on the wall of a rock is a large word "Buddha" which is 4.66 metres in height and 3.33 metres in width. And farther behind, high up on the mountain stands a screen of five peaks coloured by green trees and bamboos and marked by serene valleys and rocks of pleasing shapes. They are called "Five Old Gentlemen Reaching the Clouds," and are one of the eight grand sights of Xiamen.Look from far, the five peaks wreathed by clouds are just like five old men with white beard and hair who have experienced enough swift changes of the world and are looking far into the vast sea. Coming to the top, you not only have a view of the mountain undulating in the wind, but also the view of the sea surging in the distance.08.Jimei Tourist Area 集美旅游景点英文介绍Jimei is a suburb of Xiamen City connected to xiamen Island by a2,212-metre long granite causeway. Jimei is also the residence of Mr. Tan Kah-kee, a famous overseas Chinese philanthropist. Encircled by the seaon three sides, the town is known for its magnificent buildings combining western and oriental styles and picture-postcard sceneries. As a tourist site, Jimei has the following attractions to offer: Jimei School Village, Aoyuan (Turtle Garden), Returnees' Hall, Xiamen Bridge and Wanbao Hill Sightseeing Farms.Jimei School VillageJimei School Village is a general name for all schools and cultural institutions here. It was built by Mr.Tan Kah-kee in 1913. After decades of development, the village now covers a floor space area of over 100,000 square kilometers and there are more than 10,000 students in it. The higher learning institutions are Xiamen Aquatic Products College, Jimei Navigation College, and Jimei Finance and Economy Institute and Business Administration College, etc. There are also secondary specialized schools, middle schools, primary schools, kindergartens and nurseries schools in the village. In addition to the schools metioned above, one may find here auditoriums, swimming pools, stadiums, cinemas, hospitals and navigation clubs. They are rare through out the country for their large scales and good facilitation.Jimei School Village, blending the Chinese architectural style with western one, has become a symbol of Jimei. Among the buildings of unique style are Daonan Lou in Jimen Middle School, Nanxun Lou in Overseas Chinese School and the Teaching Building of Navigation College. In front of the Daonan Lou is the Drangon Boat Pond, 800 meters long and 300 meters wide. Around it are seven pavilions of different styles, with curved eaves and carved pillars. They are called "Seven Stars Falling onto the Ground". In the middle of the pond stand two pavilions designed by Mr.Tan Kah-kee, which are named "Lonely Star Accompanying the moon". Every year, during the Dragon Boat Festival, the dragon boat racing is held in the pond with shining ripples and melodious Nanqu (south Fujian Opera) accompanied by drumbeats. Several international dragon boat racings have been held here and attracted groups of tourists at home and abroad.Turtle GardenTurtle Garden was constructed in 1950 by Mr. Tan Kah- Kee on the former site of "Turtle Head Palace". In the centre of the garden is the Jimei Liberation Monument with an inscription by Mao Zedong on the front and a tablet record written by Mr.Tan Kah-Kee on the back. The stone foundation of the monument consists of two stages. The lower stage has eight steps, signifying the eight-year Anti- Japanese War; the upper stage is composed of three steps, symbolizing the three year Liberation War. They are telling the later generations that victories were hard- won and therefore should be cherished. The foundation of the monument is surrounded by gray jade carvings and relief sculptures polished with great care, embodying a concentrated reflection of exquisite workmanship and a unique style of south Fujian stone carving art.Returnees' HallWalled by white stones and roofed with green tiles, the Returnees' Hall covering an area of 4,000 square metres is a typical sample of south fujian constructions. As the former residence of Mr. Tan Kah-kee, the building is marked by Mr. Tan's bronze standing statue in front.At the two wings of the residence, exhibition halls were built to displayMr.Tan Kah-kee's life and achievements. The exhibition halls were in a 3-storey building with an area of 800 square meters. Articles displayed include pictures, illustrations, charts, material objects, some rare cultural relics and the only left book of "Family Tree of Tan’s in Jimei.”These exhibits vividly presenting to the audience the whole life of Mr.Tan Kah-kee as the great leader of the patriotic overseas Chinese. It has become a certain destination for visitors to Xiamen from home and abroad.Xiamen BridgeThe principal part was completed in April 1991. In May of the same year, the bridge was open to test traffic. Chinese President Jiang Zemin not only inscribed the four-character title of the bridge "Xia Men Da Qiao" for it, but also came in person to cut the ribbon to inaugurate the bridge to traffic.Consisting of the main bridge body, Jimei Crossroads, Gaoqi Bridge Approach and the automatic managing system, Xiamen Bridge is also the first cross-strait bridge in China. The main bridge body is 2,070 metres long and 23.5 metres wide. The non-stop Jimei Crossroads is made up of seven circuits. The 855-metre-long and 23.5-metre-wide Gaoqi Bridge Approach was built by the standard of the first class highroad.Wanbao Hill Sightseeing FarmLocated by the side of Guankouken inner road of No.324 national highway in Jimei District, the Wanbao Hill Sightseeing Farm covers an area of 500 mu. As the field is not very high, tourists can easily get into the orchard to look around. All year around fruit trees are planted in the garden for picking and tasting by the tourists in any month. There are lichee, longan, citrus fruits, carambola, persimmon, mango, strawberry, peaches, plums and more.The farm is also equipped with a fishing pound, barbecue areas, camping areas, farming areas, refreshment rooms and a restaurant for customers' convenience and to meet their special interests. Further more, a holiday villa within the farm can provide lodging and all kinds of entertainments.09.Tong’an Tourist Area 同安旅游景点英文介绍Tong’an was an old-line county with a history of 1,700 years before it became an administrative district of Xiamen in 1997. Tongan is endowed with natural beauty and productive of outstanding people, with a lot of places of interests and historical sites. Tong'an Tourist Area is generally divided into three parts:I. Dalun Culture Tourist Area. The main tourist spots include: Brahma Temple, Brahman Pagoda, Su Song's former residence, Tong'an Confucian Temple, Zhu Xi's Epigraph and Stone Inscription, Twelve-Dragon Pool, Wuxian Holiday Recreation Place, etc.II. Tingxi Hotspring Holiday Recreation Place. The main tourist spots include: Tingxi Reservoir, Hotspring Swimming Pool, Song's Porcelain Kiln.III. Dadeng Tri-islet Tourist Area where one can fully enjoy the landscape of the island fishing village and overlook the Quemoy or Jinmen Island of Taiwan not far away, or just have a fun swimming on the beach.The Former Residence of Su SongBy visiting the former residence of Su Song, one can be acquainted with historic sites and cultural relics relating to Su Song. Acting as an upright and hardworking prime minister for nearly 60 years for the Song Dynasty, Su Song had made many contributions and left behind a lot of scientific writings. Lu Shan Hall, the former residence of Su Song, lies in Yongfen Village in the northwest corner of Tong'an and covers an area of 1,700 square metres. Today, many Song families' offsprings in Taiwan, Hongkong, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand still find their roots here. The existent Lu Shan Hall was rebuilt in the first year of the Republic of China. The hall houses the sitting stature of Su Song, Song family tree book and the portraits of eight celebrities of the Song family. The new-built Su Song Science and Technology Exhibition Hall showsmore achievement made by Su Song as a politician, diplomat, astronomer, pharmacologist, litterateur and historian. A model of the world's first astronomical clock tower invented by Su Song is also exhibited here.Tong'an Confucian TempleThe temple is located by a stream in the eastern suburb of Tong'an. It was first set up in the Five Dynasties. Dacheng Hall, the existent construction, was rebuilt during Emperor Qianlong's reign of Qing Dynasty. Today, the Confucian Temple has been turned into Tong'an Musuem in which historical records and cultural relics of Tong'an dated back to as early as the Western Han Dynasty were exhibited. On the north side of the temple, there is a ground setting in order over 200 pieces of stone carvings and steles collected from different areas of Tong'an. With different bearings and so true to life, these sculptures are called "terracotta warriors and horses of Tong'an".Tingxi ReservoirRebuilt in 1956 at the foot of Tingxi Mountain of Tong'an, Tingxi Reservoir has a water capacity of 48 million square metres. Depending on the mountain terrain, the vast water winds its way to the far. The lake is so clear and water and mountain seem to blend into each other. Boating on the green water and among the green mountains is really carefree and joyous.Twelve-Dragon PoolThe pool is among stones and rocks on the north hill of Tong'an. A current of spring water falls from a hundred-metre high rocky cliff. Passing by many steps and holes on different height, the water fall creats 12 water ponds holding limpid water. Thus the sight is names "Twelve-Dragon Pool".。