沈阳故宫英文导游词

Shenyang Imperial Palace

Hello, everyone! Please allow me to express a warm welcome on behalf of Shenyang citizens. I'm with great pleasure to be your tourist guide and from now on I will show you around Shenyang Imperial Palace, where the founder of Qing Dynasty Nuerhachi and his son Huangtaiji lived.

Shenyang Imperial Palace, Fuling tomb and Zhaoling Tomb made in the early period of Qing Dynasty are the three famous historical sites in Shenyang. Shenyang Imperial Palace with a history of over 360 years started in 1625 and was roughly accomplished in 1636 during the reign of Nuerhachi and Huangtaiji. After them four emperors of Qing Dynasty had come back from Beijing to this palace for 10 times and enlarged its area and added its buildings. They were Emperor Kangxi, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang. Therefore, until 1783 the palace was finally finished. Shenyang Imperial Palace is one of the two royal palaces well kept in China. The other one is Forbidden City in Beijing. Shenyang Imperial Palace was entitled "Historic Culture Relics Preserved Buildings" in 1961 by the State Council. This palace is an emperor museum combining the architectural styles of the minorities of Man, Han and Mongolia. This palace covers an area of 60,000 square meters, comprising over 20 courtyards, 300 houses and 70 buildings. The whole construction is divided into three sections: the east, middle and west.

First let's pay a visit to the buildings in the middle section. The layout of middle section is similar to a Chinese compound with three courtyards. The first courtyard is the office area. It starts from the Grand Qing Gate on the south and ends at Holy Administration Hall. From Phoenix Tower to Purity and Tranquility Hall is the residential area. They all lay out on the same line. The main entrance to the palace is the Grand Qing Gate, also called Meridian Gate because the emperor considered himself as the son of Heaven and the palace should be the center of universe .The Grand Qing Gate was built in 1632 and it was the place where the civilian officials and military ministers to present themselves before the emperor daily .The special feature of the gate is the tile color. They are all yellow tiles but engraved with green borders. Yellow symbolizes the ground and the royal right while green represents sea and mountains. The combination of them means controlling the vast areas on the earth. The building to the east of Grand Qing Gate is called Ancestor Temple （Taimiao）with yellow tile roof, where Nuerhachi's descendants offered sacrifices to their ancestors for blessings. So Ancestor Temple is the most important. Please follow me into the gate. This path in the middle links the gate to Holy Administration Hall with Flying Dragon Pavilion （Feilongge）and Flying Phoenix Pavilion （Xiangfengge）on each side. The Hall of Holy Administration is the main building in the middle part of the palace and it was the center of the military, administrative affairs in early Qing Dynasty and had witnessed many national ceremonies. Flying Dragon and Flying Phoenix Pavilions were for storing music instruments. Holy Administration Hall was Emperor Huangtaiji's office. In front of the hall are Rigui and Jiangliang, which were used as measure instruments and supposed to be the symbol of unity. In accident construction, office area is usually in the front part and residential area is in the rear.

Since we have visited the place where the Emperors worked and now we'll pay a visit to the