景点英文导游词

　　Ladies and Gentlemen:

　　I am pleased to serve as your guide today.

　　This is the palace museum; also know as the Purple Forbidden City. It isthe largest and most well reserved imperial residence in China today. Under MingEmperor Yongle, construction began in 1406. It took 14years to build theForbidden City. The first ruler who actually lived here was Ming Emperor Zhudi.For five centuries thereafter, it continued to be the residence of23 successiveemperors until 1911 when Qing Emperor Puyi was forced to abdicate the throne .In1987, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizationrecognized the Forbidden City was a world cultural legacy.

　　It is believed that the Palace Museum, or Zi Jin Cheng (Purple ForbiddenCity), got its name from astronomy folklore, The ancient astronomers divided theconstellations into groups and centered them around the Ziwei Yuan(North Star).The constellation containing the North Star was called the Constellation ofHeavenly God and star itself was called the purple palace. Because the emperorwas supposedly the son of the heavenly gods, his central and dominant positionwould be further highlighted the use of the word purple in the name of hisresidence. In folklore, the term ”an eastern purple cloud is drifting” became ametaphor for auspicious events after a purple cloud was seen drifting eastwardimmediately before the arrival of an ancient philosopher, LaoZi, to the HanghuPass. Here, purple is associated with auspicious developments. The word jin(forbidden) is self-explanatory as the imperial palace was heavily guarded andoff-explanatory as the imperial palace was heavily guarded and off-limits toordinary people.

　　The red and yellow used on the palace walls and roofs are also symbolic.Red represents happiness, good fortune and wealth. Yellow is the color of theearth on the Loess Plateau, the original home of the Chinese people. Yellowbecame an imperial color during the Tang dynasty, when only members of the royalfamily were allowed to wear it and use it in their architecture.

　　The Forbidden City is rectangular in shape. It is 960 meters long fromnorth to south and 750 meter wide from east west. It has 9,900 rooms under atotal roof area 150,000 square meters .A 52-meter-wide-moat encircles a9.9-meter—high wall which encloses the complex. Octagon —shaped turrets rest onthe four corners of the wall. There are four entrances into the city: theMeridian Gate to the south, the Shenwu Gate(Gate of Military Prowess) to thenorth, and the Xihua Gate(Gate of military Prowess) to the north, and the XihuaGate(Western Flowery Gate )to the west ,the Donghua (Eastern Flowery Gate) tothe east.

　　Manpower and materials throughout the country were used to build theForbidden City. A total of 230,000 artisans and one million laborers wereemployed. Marble was quarried from fangshan Country Mount Pan in Jixian Countyin Hebei Province. Granite was quarried in Quyang County in Hebei Province.Paving blocks were fired in kilns in Suzhou in southern China. Bricks andscarlet pigmentation used on the palatial walls came from linqing in ShandongProvince .Timber was cut ,processed and hauled from the northwestern andsouthern regions.

　　The structure in front of us is the Meridian Gate. It is the main entranceto the forbidden City. It is also knows as Wufenglou(Five-Phoenix Tower). Mingemperors held lavish banquets here on the 15th day of the first month of theChinese lunar year in hornor of their counties .They also used this place forpunishing officals by flogging them with sticks.

　　Qing emperors used this building to announce the beginning of the new year.Qing Emperor Qianglong changed the original name of this announcement ceremonyfrom ban li(announcement of calendar)to ban shou(announcement of new moon )toavoid coincidental association with another Emperor` s name, Hongli, which wasconsidered a taboo at that time. Qing Dynasty emperors also used this place tohold audience and for other important ceremonies. For example,when the imperialarmy returned victoriously from the battlefield ,it was here that the Emperorpresided over the ceremony to accept prisoners of war.