开平碉楼英语导游词

开平碉楼英语导游词

【篇一：广东省英文导游词——开平碉楼】

kaiping diaolou

——the watchtower-like houses in kaiping city

【whathow is kaiing diaolou】—【outstanding diaolou structures】—【the li garden】 good morning! ladies and gentlemen:

this morning we’ll drive 1.5hours to visit the unique “diaolou”houses in kaiping city. you fell puzzled when hearing the word diaolou, don’t you? now let me tell you something about the city of kaiping as well sa what and how these houses are.

【whathow is kaiing diaolou】

kaiping is a small city in guangdong province, about 100 kilometers to the southwest of guangzhou, with an area of 1659 square kilometers and a population of 680 thousand. it has long been known as the native land of a great many overseas chinese, the number totting up to or even more than its domestic population. the chinese, you know, are a nostalgic people having a strong feeling of wistful longing for home, so the overseas chinese from kaiping, no matter how long they had been away and how far they were away from home, would come back to buy a piece of land to build their house and to get married. those houses built by the returned overseas chinese during the late 19th and early 20th centuries are all watchtower-like, with thick solid walls, small and narrow iron doors and windows, and even with embrasures on the walls and an observation tower on the top.

so, “kaiping diaolou” is a proper name of the multi-storied defensive country houses of the returned overseas chinese in kaiping city. built of stone, brick or concrete, these buildings display a fusion of chinese and foreign architectural and decorative forms, and reflect the significant role these emigrant kaiping people had played in the development of the countries they resided, in south asia, australasia, north america and other regions of the world.

you may wonder why these returned overseas chinese had their houses built into a structure of a watchtower. well, the

reasons are clear. first, public order at that time was bad and banditry was a real headache and the better-off returned overseas chinese families naturally became targets for robbery; second, the kaiping area is a stretch of low-lying land and

folds were a frequent occurrence. so, these solid and high-rise buildings were good both for defense against bandits and for refuge from the floods.

kaiping diaolou is listed by the chinese state council as a key cultural relic protected by the state. its total number amounted to 3, 300 in the peak years and now the registered number is 1833, and twenty of the better ones are inscribed on the world heritage list by unesco. org (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization). these buildings take three forms: communal tower jointly built by. several families for use as temporary refuge, residential tower built by individual rich family and used as fortified residence, and watch tower for guarding against bandits. in the 1940s during the war of resistance against japan, some of these towers became strongholds for p eople’s militia.

【outstanding diaolou structures】

the diaolou structures in zili village, 12 kilometers away from the kaiping city center, are the most magnificent and best preserved. there are 15 in all, which are all listed as key

cultural relics protected by the state. among them the mingshilou is the best of all. built in 1925, it is a 5-storeyed reinforced concrete structure, with an hexagon observation pavilion on the top and a blockhouse built on the outside walls at each of the four corners on the fifth floor. this huge and imposing tower is installed with heavy iron doors and strong iron windows, and is luxuriously decorated and well furnished. other well-known diaolou structures are the yinglonglou in chikan town, the ruishilou in yan’gang town a nd the fangshe denglou in tangkou town. they were built in different years by different families and so are different in architectural style. the yinglonglou, built during the jiajing reign of the ming dynasty

in the middle of the 16th century (1522 - 1566), is the oldest diaolou structure and is free from foreign influence in architectural style. the ruishilou, a 9 – storied 25-meter high reinforced concrete structure, is the most luxury and is laid out and furnished in the traditional chinese pattern. the fangshi