颐和园英文导游词-重要景点英文介绍

The summer palace(颐和园)

HIstory: It has a history of over 800 years, which goes back to the Liao& Jin Dynasty.Firstly in Jin Dynasty, it was built to be a temporary palace, named Golden Hill and Golden Water Pond; Then in Yuan Dynasty, the Emperor Kublai Khan(忽必烈可汗) intent to develop the water transportation system, to response, water was brought from Shenshan Mountain to the Jade Spring Hill and then to Jar Hill Pond; In Ming Dynasty, as the 10th emperor was quite fond of the outstanding sceneries here, he ordered to build an imperial residence by the lake. From then on, the beautiful place with natural hill, neat pond and colorful botany became an ideal place for emperor.

The name of “T he summer palace”was indeed given by express Cixi, who loved here very much. She embezzled the navy funds to have the palace rebuilt under the excuse of setting up a navy academy inside. This led to big budget deficit in economy and what was worse resulted in Chinese defeat in the Sino Japanese War in 1894.To avoid war in 1902, Cixi escaped to Xi’an with the emperor Guangxu. The summer palace, as we can image, was badly destroyed and ransacked at that moment. When Cixi returned after the war, she spared no effort to rebuild the palace and came to live here every year from April to October. The summer palace today is more or less the same look as it was rebuilt in 1903.

Reputation: Over the past 50 years, Chinese Government has spent lots of money to renovating it. In 1988, the summer palace was listed as a World Culture Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Difference with The Forbidden City: The roofs here are covered with plain bluish gray tiles in harmony with the landscape. So it looks more like a garden than an imperial court.

1: the East Palace Gate(东宫门)

It is the main entrance of the summer palace. In ancient times, only emperor and empress can go through the central gate because of rigid hierarchy. We can see the relief style carving depicts two dragons playing with a pearl. It symbolizes the emperor’s dignity.

2: The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity(仁寿殿)

The hall was a political area for emperor to handle state affairs. The name of this hall came from Lun yu’s saying” those who are benevolent can enjoy a long life.”

Look at this monster, it’s name is Bronze Qilin(铜麒麟). Qilin is regarded as one of the 9 sons of the dragon, which embodies power and bravery. Qilin has the head of dragon, antlers of dear, hooves of an ox, tail of a lion and the body of a fish with scales all over it. This creature is believed to detect any disloyal subjects. Another famous spot is the Long Life Well(延年井), it is said once Express Cixi once got heatstroke when she was in the Summer Palace, she quickly recovered herself after drinking the water here and gave the name for the wishes of long life.

3：Long Corridor(长廊)

The long corridor is about 728 meters long with 273 sections. It is the longest, biggest and most famous one in China and even in the world. There are totally 14,000 paintings and pictures painted on the beams and crossbeams. What attracts me most is that each of these paintings is almost different from the other! So it is really art gallery! The colorful paintings on the beams include landscapes, scenic spots, human figures, stories, flowers, birds and so on. Most of These figures were copied from beautiful sceneries in Hangzhou. That is because during the inspection trips to the south of China, Emperor Qianlong was deeply attracted by the splendid sceneries there, in order to keep long memory , he order the painters to draw them on the ceiling of the long corridor for regular visit. To added, the Long Corridor was also a birthday gift that Emperor Qianlong gave to his