水上游 英语 导游词

Boating on Ancient Canal

(From Ferry-seeking Bridge to Xumen City Gate)

Commentary

Ladies and gentlemen：

Welcome to our Pleasure Boat Wharf at the Ferry-seeking Bridge, Suzhou. During the tour, if you need any help and service, please let us know. Both the boatmen and I are willing to serve you whole-heartedly. Thank you for your cooperation in advance and wish you a pleasant sailing.

The wharf is located in the southeast corner of the ancient city proper of Suzhou where the east city moat and the Grand Canal meet. Covering an area of 14.2 sq.km, the ancient city proper is surrounded with the moat.

It is clear that the west moat and south moat used to be part of the Grand Canal, which turns south under the Ferry-seeking Bridge and flows southward to its terminus—the city of the Hangzhou.

On the way passengers appreciate scenery such as bridges of many kinds, old towns and various crops along the centuries-old Grand Canal.

Ferry-seeking Bridge

As to the Ferry-seeking Bridge, locals cherish a good memory of this Yuan Dynasty bridge, a bridge constructed by a Buddhist monk. It was erected in 1298, before which there was not any bridge nearby across the Grand Canal. Passers-by crossed it by ferry. Sometimes they were blackmailed by the boatman at the ferry. Among them was a monk whose name was Jingxiu. He loved to build a bridge here at ferry with his own money for the benefit of the ordinary people after the boatman extorted mony from him and others time and again.

Being a Buddhist monk, he begged alms everywhere, raised enough funds and at last succeeded in constructing a stone arch bridge here that flew over the Grand Canal.

From then on , the function of the ferry disappeared or was exterminated so that the bridge was named the Ferry-exterminated Bridge. In Suzhou dialect that sounds soft and musical “look for” or “seek”. Therefore local people call it the Ferry—seeking Bridge, which is protected by the provincial government.

The top part of the bridge’s arch is only 30 cm in thickness, which is seldom seen. Its thickness is the thinnest of all the old stone arch bridges in Suzhou.

When we walk to the wharf we can see a group of three life-sized bronze statues. One is the boatman with an oar in his hand, who stands at the water side, and the other is Monk Jingxiu who sits at the roadside and begs alms for building a bridge. He is really a devout Buddhist.

Between the two statues is another bronze figure, a lady in ancient time who seems to be walking in a hurry and waving to the boatman. She carries a bundle wrapped in cloth, seeming to cry: “Wait for me please, I’ll cross the canal.” How