旅游英语景点介绍—上海豫园

　　【简介】豫园座落于中国上海市黄浦区，原上海老城厢东北部，是建于明朝时期的古典园林。豫园建于1559年，最初是四川布政使潘允端的私人园林，他建造此园林的目的是“愉悦老亲”，而“愉”和“豫”意思相通，故而得名豫园。园内有江南三大名石的玉玲珑和原小刀会起义的指挥所——点春堂。豫园共有西部、东部、中部和内园四个景区。西部景区有三穗堂、仰山堂、点春堂、大假山和元代铁狮等知名景观。三穗堂为修建西园时所建，在清代是官府庆典和“宣讲圣谕”之处。大假山是江南地区现存最古老和最大的黄石假山，由张南阳设计。山高约14米，被周允端被人称为“峻，颇惬观赏”。东部景区有江南三大名石之一的玉玲珑、积玉水廊、会景楼等景观。中部景区有得月楼、织亭、浣云假山等景观。内园景区在修复时与豫园连接在了一起，故可谓是“园中之园”，其只有二亩一分八厘六毫大，袖珍却十分精致。内园景区包括古戏台、九龙池、观涛楼等景观。

yuyuan garden, located in the southern part of shanghai, is a famous classic garden. it is characteristic of the architectural style of the ming dynasty.

history:

1. pan yunduan, once an official of sichuan province, there is another saying that he was a treasurer, had the garden built to please his parents. the garden’s name “yu” means “pleasing one’s parents”.

2. the construction started in 1559 but went on and off for lack of money and did not complete until twenty-eight years later.

3. some businessmen bought it at a low price and later make it the city god temple’s west garden. during the opium war and the taiping revolution, it was occupied and experienced a lot of disasters, so it lost much of its former grandeur. after the liberation of shanghai, the people’s government makes many renovations to yuyuan garden and it opened to public at last in 1987 with a totally new look.

main spots:

before entering:

there is a beautiful lotus pond. across the pond is a bridge with a pavilion in the middle which is called the mid-lake pavilion. it was rebuilt in 1784 and was converted into a teahouse 80 years ago. the old teahouse is one of the most famous in shanghai, and was visited by queen elizabeth ii and bill clinton among others.

by the teahouse is a nine zigzag bridge.

don’t miss the mid-lake pavilion teahouse next to the entrance of the yuyuan gardens and now one of the most famous teahouses in china, visited by queen elizabeth ii and bill clinton among others.

six scenery area:

one: the huge rockery scenic area.

zigzag bridge:

a zigzag bridge is one method for garden building.

it slows down visitors’ pace so that they may enjoy the scenery leisurely and it also enables them to have a different view whenever they make a turn.

why nine zigzag? it is because “nine” is the biggest digit before ten and is a lucky number.

on special occasions such as the lantern festival, which falls on the 15th of january of the lunar calendar, celebrations are held in the vicinity, giving rise to much hustle and bustle.

it was a private garden in the southeast of shanghai, with a history of more than 400 years. the garden features more than 30 halls and pavilions such as spring hall, chamber for gathering the rain and pavilion for viewing frolicking fish. they look out on pools filled with multicolored carp and lotus, artificial but climbable mountains, a grand rockery, dragon-shaped walls and winding corridors.

the owner of the garden, yunduan pan, once a treasurer of sichuan province in the ming dynasty, had the garden built after the imperial type in beijing to please his parents in their old age. hence the name of the garden "yu", which means "pleasing one's parents".

the construction started in 1559 but went on and off for lack of money and did not come to completion till twenty years later. unfortunately, pan's father did not live to see the garden completed. what's more, the pans went down the drain and his descendents were eager to sell the garden. some businessmen soon bought it at a low price. then, it was incorporated into the city god temple to become its "west garden", and alter turned into many trade gild offices. in the mid-1800s the society of small swords used the garden as a gathering place for meetings. it was here that they planned their uprising with the taiping revolutioners against the french colonialists. the french destroyed the garden during the first opium war. so, the garden experienced repeated calamities in its history and lost much of its former grandeur. but the area was later rebuilt and renovated.

yu garden is divided into six parts with many scenic spots: three corn-ear hall and grand rockery; happy fish waterside pavilion and chamber of ten thousand flowers; spring hall and hall of mildness; scenery gathering tower, toasting pavilion and nine-lion study; exquisite jade stone and the inner garden.

each part of yu garden is separated by a white brick wall, the top of which are decorated with dragons. each part of the park, although divided, has a balance and harmony creating a unity of expression.

yu garden is a piece of shanghai past, one of the few old sights left in the city. everyday at least 10,000 people visit the garden. no wonder people say "those who came to shanghai but missed yu garden and the city god temple bazaar can not claim that they have been to the city."

open hour: daily 9:00 a.m. -- 5:30 p.m.

address: 218 anren street, old city

busline: no. 64, no. 24, no. 11, no. 926

three corn-ear hall and grand rockery

let's begin our virtual tour. before entering the garden, you will see a beautiful lotus pond. across the pond is a bridge with a pavilion in the middle. the mid-lake pavilion was rebuilt in 1784 and converted into a teahouse 80 years ago. one of the best in shanghai, the teahouse is a popular place for the elderly people, who enjoy chatting with each other over a cup of tea.

under the teahouse is a nine-zigzag bridge. the bridge is an indispensable part of a chinese garden. it divides up the water space. a zigzag bridge slows down visitors' pace so that they may enjoy the scenery leisurely and it also enables them to see a different view whenever they make a turn. but why nine zigzags? it is because "nine" is the biggest digit before ten and is, therefore, a lucky number. on special occasions such as the lantern festival, which falls on the 15th of january of the lunar calendar, celebrations used to be held in the vicinity, giving rise to much hustle and bustle. yu yuan garden is a small one, only covering an area of 2 hectares but it strikes one as quite large because of its zigzag layout.

this is the three corn-ear hall, the largest and tallest hall in the garden. called the "hall of happiness and longevity" at first, it was a place where the host entertained his guests and held banquets.

there are three plaques in the hall - "mountains and forests in the city" on top, "ling tai jin shi" in the middle and "three-ear corn hall" at the bottom. the top plaque expresses mr. pan's love for landscape. as shanghai lies in a flat country with no mountains or forests around, he built the garden with plenty of trees and plants and rockeries, hoping to bring the beauties into it. the two words "ling tai" on the middle plaque refers to the high terrace, where the king of zhou dynasty offered sacrifices to his ancestors. the hall was also a place for the gentry to explain and study the imperial edicts. after the hall was turned into an office for the rice and bean businessmen, the name was changed into "three corn-ear hall", reflecting the wishes of businessmen for a rich harvest. for the same reason, there are crops and fruits carved on the doors of the hall.

yu yuan garden boasts many lattice windows, which are found in the corridors and on the walls. they were covered by paper of foil of shells 400 years ago instead of glas as they are now. built with a mixture of clay, lime and alum, each of them presents a different design. on the windows near the three corn-ear hall are designs of pine, crane and lingzhi herb, which symbolize fortune, wealth, longevity and happiness.behind the three corn-ear hall stands the yangshan hall (hall for viewing the mountain) built in 1866. opposite the yangshan hall is a beautiful rockery hill which is called grand rockery. designed by chang nanyang, a famous landscape architect, it is a rarity in southern china. while sipping tea with your friends in the hall as the owner did, you can enjoy the rockery hill in front. as is described by the words on the plaque in the hall "high mountain ridges", the 12-metre high rockery hill, dumped with 2,000 tons of rocks, is noted for its steep cliffs and hidden, winding paths. it is no exaggeration to say that the rockery hill is the crystallization of the wisdom and creativeness of the working people as to move the rocks from 200-kilometre-away wukang in zhejiang province alone was no easy job at all. what is more amazing is that the rocks were stuck together by cooked glutinous rice mixed with alum and lime, for at that time cement was not available.

visitors feel as if they were on real mountain ridges once they ascend the rockery covered by trees and flowers and with streams flowing down the slopes into the pond below. the pavilion on the hilltop, the highest point in shanghai 400 years ago, commanded an excellent view of the huang pu river dotted by sails and masts. hence the name "pavilion for viewing the river".

behind the rockery is a wall topped with a dragon, called the reclining dragon. there are five dragon walls in the garden, dividing it into six different scenic sections.

above the yangshan hall is the "rain rolling tower" with its name derived from the tang dynasty poet wang bo's poem. a verse of it reads "at dusk the pearl-curtain rolls up the rain drifting from western hill." it is true that on the four sides of the hall there used to be pearl-curtains, which gave off a kind of rain-like sound against the wind. while enjoying, in the hall, the excellent views of the rockery and pond full of lotus blossoms and goldfish, visitors seem to hear the sound of rain, thus feeling carried away by the poetic surrounding with mountains in the rain.

in yu yuan garden there are many brick carvings, dating back to the qing dynasty, 300 years ago. here are two of them. the one on the left is called "plum wives and crane sons". they are carved on the bricks fired in the kiln. the legend connected with the carving describes lin heqing, a poet in the song dynasty 1000 years ago. mr. lin loved plum and crane as he did his wife and son. hence the saying "plum wives and crane sons". though a great poet, lin heqing fell out of favour. disappointed, he lived in seclusion in a country cottage on the gushan hill in hangzhou. during the twenty years of his stay there, he did nothing other than planting plum trees and raising a crane. every year, when the plums bloomed he simply stayed at home and enjoyed the sight of the plum blossoms. that was why he was able to write a number of beautiful poems in praise of plum trees, which have ever since been greatly admired and recited by people. his crane wuno was also a great help to him. when occasionally, his friends called on him and found him out, his crane would fly around. seeing the crane, he got the message and would return home immediately to receive his guests. the death of its master made the crane so sad that it stood in front of his tomb day after day, crying until it died. the crane was buried not far from lin's tomb. by the side of wuno's tomb, a pavilion, the crane pavilion, was built in memory of the faithful and loyal wading bird. perhaps, mr. pan used this brick carving to ex[press his idea that he and mr. lin were in the same boat. the brick carving on the right describes someone who came out first in the military examinations at three levels.

now let us go to the next section: happy fish waterside pavilion and chamber of ten thousand flowers.

happy fish waterside pavilion, chamber of ten thousand flowers

at the entrance to the corridor are two iron lions. cast in the yuan dynasty, they are nearly 700 years old. iron lions are very rare in china as most of them are made of wood or stone. regarded as the king of animals, lion signifies "dignity" and "majesty". such lions, usually put in front of palaces or courts, were meant to show the owners' prowess. it is very easy to tell the sex of the two lions.

the rule is that the female one is always put on the left while the male one stands on the right. what is more, the female lion fondles a baby, while the male plays with a ball. there is an old saying in china "the lion's cub has to learn how to rough it." the mother lion makes it a point to give the baby a hard time so that it will be trained into a brave animal. those two lions were originally found in changde county, henan province. they were shipped to tokyo and did not return to china until the victory of the anti-japanese war in 1945.

we are walking along the corridor. a corridor provides the link between buildings in ancient architecture. appearing in different forms - straight or zigzag, high or low, hill-climbing or water-hugging, a corridor is a visitor's guideline. it divides up the space and combines the views. with every step the visitor takes following a corridor, the view changes. a technique in building court gardens is to create parallel views. that is to say the pavilions, halls, chambers and towers match each other. here is a case in point.

standing on the rain rolling tower and looking on the right, visitors seem to see a landscape painting dominated by the rockery resembling a real mountain. when visitors on top of the rockery cast their eyes to their left, they will be struck by a genre painting centered on towers and chambers with pavilions, bridges and ponds tucked away as the background.

the rock in the middle of the corridor looks like a young lady. isn't it a treat to see suddenly a young lady who feels shy upon meeting a stranger and tries to hide herself when you stop in the pavilion for a brief rest and enjoy the views around!

the plaque above says "gradually entering the wonderland". it means that you should slowly follow the winding corridor in order to really appreciated the beautiful views ahead.

you see another brick carving on your left. the old man holding a walking stick is the god of longevity. he is distinguished by an abnormally large, protruding forehead which is deeply lined and crowned with snow white hair. he also has big ears, long eyebrows and a square mouth with thick lips. he is a legendary figure said to be in charge of the life span of mankind. above the god of longevity is the goddess of mercy.

this is happy fish waterside pavilion. surrounded by water on three sides, it is a good place for enjoying goldfish swimming happily in the pond. the pavilion often reminds visitors of the dialogue carried between two ancient philosophers, zhuang zhi and hui zhi. once they came to a pond like this. one of them said, "the goldfish must be very happy." the other asked him, "how do you know whether they are happy since you are not fish?" he first one answered, "how do you know that i do not know they are happy since you are not me?"