故宫英文导游词

　　Ladies and Gentlemen:

　　My name is , welcome to the palace museum I am very pleased to be your guide. Before the visiting I’d like to remind you the museum is the fire-control area. Please don’t smoke .

　　The palace museum also known as the Purple Forbidden City，it is the largest and most well reserved imperial residence in China. The construction of the palace started in 1406 in the Ming dynasty. It took 14years to complete. For five centuries, it continued to be the residence of 23 emperors till 1911. .At present, the palace is an elaborate museum that presents the Chinese traditional architecture and court treasures . In 1987, it was listed as apart of world cultural heritage by UNES CO.

　　Now standing in front of us is the Meridian Gate which is the main entrance for the Former Imperial Palace. It is so named because the emperor considered himself the ‘Son of the Heaven’ and the Palace the center of the universe, hence the north-south axis as the Meridian line.

　　Beyond the Meridian Gate we can see the Inner Golden Water River. Why did people dig a river channel here? It has two reasons: first, it functions as decoration for the imperial palace; second, it is used for the fire control. The river is spanned by five bridges, which symbolize the five virtues preached by Confucius: benevolence, righteousness, intelligence, and fidelity. The river takes the shape of a bow and the north-south axis is its arrow. This layout shows that the emperors ruled the country on behalf of Heaven.

　　Now we have been in the outer court of the palace. At the north end of the courtyard ,one after another, stand the three main halls: the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony.

　　Now let’s visit the Hall of Supreme Harmony first. The Hall of Supreme Harmony , rectangular in shape, 27 meter in height, 2300 square meters in area, is the largest and the most important hall in the palace complex. It is also China’s largest existing wooden structure palace. This hall used to be the throne hall for ceremonies, such as the Spring Festival, the emperors birthday and enthronement, and the dispatch of generals to battles. On such coactions, there would be an imperial guard of honor standing in front of the Hall and extending all the way to the Meridian Gate. Just imagine, what a grand sight it was.

　　The hall of the Central Harmony is smaller and square with windows on all sides. Usuallythe emperor rehearsed for ceremonies here.Behind the Central Harmony Hall is the Hall of Preserving Harmony in which banquets and imperials examinations were held here 。