北京天坛英语导游词

Sample of Tour Guide of the Temple of Heaven

天坛导游词范例

The Architectural Complex of the Altar of Prayer for Grain

（祈谷坛建筑群）

Today, we"ll go to visit the Temple of Heaven. First, I'll give you a brief introduction of it. The Temple of Heaven is situated in the southern part of Beijing It was first built during 1420 during the Ming Dynasty. It covers an area of 273hectares. The Temple of Heaven is not only the largest group of temple building in China, but also the largest heaven-worshipping architecture in the world.

originally the Temple of Heaven was built according to the Temple of Heaven and Earth in Nanjing, so both heaven and earth were worshiped here, and then it was called the Temple of Heaven and Earth at that time. In1530, another structure, the Temple of Earth was built in the northern part of Beijing and then Heaven and Earth were worshipped separately. Since only Heaven was worshipped in here, it was renamed the Temple of Heaven.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Temple of Heaven was the place where the emperors came to worship the God of Heaven and pray for good harvests. The emperor came here twice a year. The first time was on the15 day of the first lunar month. The emperor would come to the Hall of the Prayer for Good Harvests and held a big ceremony to pray for a bumper harvest. The second time was on winter solstice, and a sacrificial ceremony would be held at the Circular Mount Altar to offer a sacrifice to the Heaven.

Being a sacred place for worshipping heaven, the Temple of Heaven had been twice seriously damaged by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in 1860 and the invading troops of the eight powers in 1900.

Architecturally speaking, the Temple of Heaven has two themes: the heaven and the earth. The surrounding walls of the Temple of Heaven are 6 meters high with a semicircular wall to the north and square shaped wall to the south. This represents an ancient belief that the heaven was round and the earth was square. There are three main buildings in the Temple of Heaven they are the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Circular Mound Altar.

The Architectural Complex of the Circular Mound Altar

（圆丘坛建筑群）

Ladies and gentlemen:

Welcome to the Temple of Heaven. Today we are going to visit the Circular Mound Altar. The Circular Mound Altar was built in 1530 and enlarged in 1740.There are two walls that encircle the Altar. Both walls are painted red and surrounded by blue tiles. Each wall represents something different. The round inner wall represents Heaven while the square outer wall represents Earth.

In the southeast corner, pine and cypress branches were burned in the green-tiled oven to welcome the gods from heaven. To bid farewell to the gods, human sacrifices were burned in the oven. Next to the oven, there is a special pit called "the Pit of Hair and Blood "because the hair and blood of the sacrificial victims were buried here.