北京市景点英文导游词

　　The Great Wall, like the Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal(1) in India andthe Hanging Garden of Babylon(2), is one of the great wonders of the world.Starting out in the east on the banks of the Yalu River in Liaoning Province,the Wall stretches westwards for 12,700 kilometers to Jiayuguan in the Gobidesert, thus known as the Ten Thousand Li Wall in China. The Wall climbs up anddown, twists and turns along the ridges of the Yanshan and Yinshan MountainChains through five provinces-Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu--andtwo autonomous regions--Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, binding the northern Chinatogether.

　　Historical records trace the construction of the origin of the Wall todefensive fortification back to the year 656 B.C. during the reign of King Chengof the States of Chu. Its construction continued throughout the Warring Statesperiod in the fifth Century B.C. when ducal states Yan, Zhao, Wei, and Qin werefrequently plundered by the nomadic peoples living north of the Yinshan andYanshan mountain ranges. Walls, then, were built separately by these ducalstates to ward off such harassments. Later in 221 B.C., when Qin conquered theother states and unified China, Emperor Qinshihuang ordered the connection ofthese individual walls and further extensions to form the basis of the presentgreat wall. As a matter of fact, a separate outer wall was constructed north ofthe Yinshan range in the Han Dynasty(206 BC--1644 BC.), which went to ruinthrough years of neglect. In the many intervening centuries, succeedingdynasties rebuilt parts of the Wall. The most extensive reinforcements andrenovations were carried out in the Ming Dynasty (1368--1644) when altogether 18lengthy stretches were reinforced with bricks and rocks. it is mostly the MingDynasty Wall that visitors see today. The Great Wall is divided into twosections, the east and west, with Shanxi Province as the dividing line. The westpart is a rammed earth construction, about 5.3 meters high on average. In theeastern part, the core of the Wall is rammed earth as well, but the outer shellis reinforced with bricks and rocks. The most imposing and best preservedsections of the Great Wall are at Badaling and Mutianyu, not far from Beijingand both are open to visitors. The Wall of those sections is 7.8 meters high and6.5 meters wide at its base, narrowing to 5.8 meters on the ramparts, wideenough for five horses to gallop abreast. There are ramparts, embrasures,peep-holes and apertures for archers on the top, besides gutters with gargoylesto drain rain-water off the parapet walk. Two-storied watch-towers are built atapproximately 400-meters internals. The top stories of the watch-tower weredesigned for observing enemy movements, while the first was used for storinggrain, fodder, military equipment and gunpowder as well as for quarteringgarrison soldiers. The highest watch-tower at Badaling standing on a hill-top,is reached only after a steep climb, like "climbing a ladder to heaven". Theview from the top is rewarding, hoverer. The Wall follows the contour ofmountains that rise one behind the other until they finally fade and merge withdistant haze. A signal system formerly existed that served to communicatemilitary information to the dynastic capital. This consisted of beacon towers onthe Wall itself and on mountain tops within sight of the Wall. At the approachof enemy troops, smoke signals gave the alarm from the beacon towers in thedaytime and bonfire did this at night.

　　Emergency signals could be relayed to the capital from distant placeswithin a few hour long before the invention of anything like moderncommunications. There stand 14 major passes (Guan, in Chinese) at places ofstrategic importance along the Great Wall, the most important being Shanghaiguanand Jiayuguan. Yet the most impressive one is Juyongguan, about 50 kilometersnorthwest of Beijing. Known as "Tian Xia Di YI Guan" (The First Pass UnderHeaven), Shanghaiguan Pass is situated between two sheer cliffs forming a neckconnecting north China with the northeast. It had been, therefore, a keyjunction contested by all strategists and many famous battles were fought here.It was the gate of Shanghaiguan that the Ming general Wu Sangui opened to theManchu army to suppress the peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng and sosurrendered the whole Ming empire to the Manchus, leading to the foundation ofthe Qing Dynasty. (1644-1911) Jiayuguan Pass was not so much as the "Strategicpass Under the Heaven" as an important communication center in Chinese history.Cleft between the snow-capped Qilian Mountains and the rolling Mazong Mountains,it was on the ancient Silk Road. Zhang Qian, the first envoy of Emperor Wu Di ofthe Western Han dynasty (206 B.C-24 A.D), crossed it on his journey to thewestern regions. Later, silk flowed to the west through this pass too. Thegate-tower of Jiayuguan is an attractive building of excellent workmanship. Ithas an inner city and an outer city, the former square in shape and surroundedby a wall 11.7 meters high and 730 meters in circumference. It has two gates, aneastern one and a western one. On each gate sits a tower facing each other. thefour corners of the wall are occupied by four watch towers, one for each.Juyongguan, a gateway to ancient Beijing from Inner Mongolia, was built in a15-kilometer long ravine flanked by mountains. The cavalrymen of Genghis Khanswept through it in the 13th century. At the center of the pass is a whitemarble platform named the Cloud terrace, which was called the Crossing-StreetDagoba, since its narrow arch spanned the main street of the pass and on the topof the terrace there used to be three stone dagobas, built in the YuanDaynasty(1206-1368). At the bottom of the terrace is a half-octagonal archgateway, interesting for its wealth of detail: it is decorated with splendidimages of Buddha and four celestial guardians carved on the walls. The vividnessof their expressions is matched by the exquisite workmanship. such grandioserelics works, with several stones pieced together, are rarely seen in ancientChinese carving. The gate jambs bear a multi-lingual Buddhist sutra, carved some600 years ago in Sanskrit(3), Tibetan, Mongolian, Uigur(4), Han Chinese and thelanguage of Western Xia. Undoubtedly, they are valuable to the study of Buddhismand ancient languages. As a cultural heritage, the Wall belongs not only toChina but to the world. The Venice charter says: "Historical and culturalarchitecture not only includes the individual architectural works, but also theurban or rural environment that witnessed certain civilizations, significantsocial developments or historical events." The Great Wall is the largest of suchhistorical and cultural architecture, and that is why it continues to be soattractive to people all over the world. In 1987, the Wall was listed by UNESCOas a world cultural heritage site.