广州景点的英文导游词
The Six Banyan Temple in Guangzhou is a 1400-year-old Buddhist monastery, dating from 537AD during China’s Southern and Northern Dynasties Period, when Buddhism in China was in its prime.Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty in South China was the most zealous devotee of Buddhism among all the emperors throughout the history of China. At that time, a Buddhist priest called Tanyu, who was a maternal uncle of Emperor Wu, was planning to bring the Buddhist relic they got in Cambodia to Guangzhou from Nanjing. To await the arrival of this Buddhist relic, the then governor of Guangzhou, Xiao Yu by name, specially had this temple built.
The original structure of the temple was destroyed by fire in the middle of the 10th century during the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty. The existing temple was built in 989 and the pagoda was reconstructed in 1097.
This temple has got different names. In 1100, when Su Dongpo, a celebrated writer and calligrapher of the Northern Song Dynasty, came to visit the temple and was asked to leave a piece of his calligraphy in the temple, he wrote down two Chinese characters "Liu Rong", meaning "Six Banyan" in English, because he was deeply impressed by the six banyan trees then growing in the temple. Since then the temple has been commonly known as the Six Banyan Temple and the pagoda, the Six Banyan Pagoda. Now the facsimiles of these two characters can still be seen engraved on the stone tablet in a corridor and on the slab over the lintel of the front door.
The entrance hall of the temple is called The Hall of Heavenly Kings and is the shrine for Mile Buddha (Maitreya) and the Heavenly Kings (or the Divas as are called in Buddhist sutra).The statue in the middle, the man with a big belly, is Mile Buddha, who is commonly known as the Laughing Buddha because he is always grinning from ear to ear.
He is the future savior that will deliver all living beings to the Buddhist paradise after Sakyamuni’s Buddhist power is exhausted, and so he is also known as the Future Buddha. The couplet on both sides is a compliment to the Laughing Buddha, meaning literally: “A big belly can hold the world’s troubles that are troubling people. An open mouth is smiling at those who are to be smiled at.”
On either side of the hall we can see two statues. They are the four Heavenly Kings, who are protectors of Buddhist doctrines, with each taking care of one side-the east, west, north and south. It is their joint efforts that ensure harmony, peace and prosperity of the world. The four objects they are holding-a "pipa"(a Chinese pluck instrument),an umbrella, a snake and a sword-combine to mean that Buddha will ensure a favorable weather for the crops so that people may live a happy life.
Statue at the back of the Laughing Buddha is the patron of the temple, Wei Tuo or Veda by name, who is number one among the 32 generals under the four Heavenly Kings.
The Six Banyan Pagoda was built for keeping Buddhist relics. According to the records, some holy ashes from Buddha’s teeth, a sword, a bronze tripod and some other Buddhist treasures are buried under the foundation of the pagoda. This octagonal magnificent pagoda, with its blue glazed tiles, vermilion beams, painted walls and red pillars all in good match, looks like a flowery column and so it is often referred to as the “Flowery Pagod”a.
The highlight of the visit to the temple is to climb the pagoda. This 57-meter-high pagoda looks to have only 9 stories on the outside but actually has 17 stories inside. On each of the 9 external floors, there are many entrances leading to its interior but only one is accessible to the staircase.
So, if you lose your way, you just turn around the circle and you will find your way up or down! On the top floor, there is a huge bronze column with 1023 Buddha figurines in relief. Cast in 1358, this bronze column, together with its attachments, weighs over 5 tons.
To the west of the pagoda is the main hall of the temple-the Sakaymuni Hall. In this hall, the statues of Sakyamuni Buddha, Amida Buddha and the Pharmacist Buddha (Bhaisajya-guru) are enshrined. They are the three master Buddhas of the central, western and eastern worlds.
These three bronze Buddha statues, all 6 meters high and each weighing 10 tons, were cast in 1663 and are the biggest bronze Buddha statues in Guangdong Province. Originally they were settled in the Big Buddha Temple at Huifu Xi Road in Guangzhou.
In the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution, they were regarded as vestiges of the old feudal ideas and were moved out of the temple and put into a scrap warehouse by the rebellious Red Guards. In 1983, they were removed to be mounted here when the Sakyamuni Hall of the Six Banyan Temple was rebuilt.
To the south of the pagoda is the shrine for worshiping Hui Neng who was the Six Patriarch of Chan Buddhism and founder of the south sect of Chan Buddhism, which is the prevailing Buddhist sect in China.
What and how is the south sect of Chan Buddhism? Well, according to Buddhist dogmas, sufferings and miseries exist everywhere in this world and evils are caused by people’s desire and attachment. And life, as well as time, is cyclical and all beings are subject to the sufferings of changes in different incarnations. The soul may endure many lives but the condition of the new life depends on the behavior of the soul in its previous body. If an individual ignores opportunities for right thinking and right action, in its next life it will have to pay for its past mistake.
Therefore, in order to escape the wheel of life and to escape from suffering and misery, human beings must eliminate all desire and attachment, such as those for money and sex, which are the causes of all evils. The way to achieve the goal of eliminating desire and attachment may differ with different sects of Buddhism. Hui Neng, the sixth patriarch of Chan Buddhism, made this very simple. He discarded all the red tapes and advocated that, to achieve this goal, one should only practice umbilical contemplation, that is, to restrain oneself from any desire and emotions by quietly sitting cross-legged to concentrate one’s mind on the umbilicus of one’s own, in a posture like that of his statue you can see in the temple.
The south sect Chan Buddhists believe that everybody has an inherent Buddhist nature, that is, a peaceful and undistracted state of mind that was originally free from evil intention and anxiety. This Buddhist nature in his own mind can be realized as long as he gives up all desire and attachment and, once he has come to realize it, he will instantly become a Buddha. And, even a butcher who used to kill living beings everyday can become a Buddha as long as he drops his cleaver and practice contemplation to realize his Buddhist nature.
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.
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.
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.
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 people’s militia.
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 and 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 Denglou, a reinforced concrete structure built in 1920 by the Fang family, is typical of the Diaolou structure as a watchtower for it was located in an open land and was provided with electric generator,searchlights and guns.
Another tourist attraction in Kaiping City is the Li Garden. It was a private residential garden built in 1926 – 1936 by an American Chinese, Xie Wei Li by name. The garden’s name “Li” was derived from the name of its owner and it gives expression to the meaning of a Chinese idiom Xiu Shen Li Ben, which is written on an archway in the garden, meaning that cultivating one’s moral and character is the key to success in one’s life and work. This idea of the owner’s is also embodied in many other inscriptions and couplets written in the garden.
The Li Garden is laid out in the way of traditional Chinese gardening but many of its structures are built in Western styles, such as the two Roman-styled structures popularly known as the Bird’s Nest and the Flower & Rattan Pavilion. The garden covers an area of 19, 600 square meters, with a man-made stream running through and cutting it into two parts, which are connected by arch-bridges. Along the stream are pavilions, a hundred-meter-long corridor, archways, residential houses and other structures.
The residential buildings in the villa area are also combinations of Chinese and Western architectural elements. While their main structures are foreign-styled, some are roofed like a Chinese palace, and inside they are decorated and furnished with both Chinese and foreign artifacts: Western fireplace and pendent lamps, Italian ceramic tiles, Chinese wooden furniture, wall paintings depicting Chinese folk stories, Chinese gilded wood-carvings etc.
The Li Garden is indeed a paragon of harmonious combination of the Chinese and foreign cultures.