：颐和园万寿山山前景区

题二：颐和园万寿山山前景区(长廊;中轴线建筑群;山前东侧之紫气东来城关;山前西侧之听鹂馆及石舫)

The long corridor actually is a long covered walkway. It starts from the gate of the greeting the moon in the east and ends the marble boat in the west. It is 728 meters long with 273 sections, so it is called long corridor. The long corridor lies in front of the longevity hill with the gate of dispelling clouds in the center. It was first built in 1750 by emperor qianlong for his mother to enjoy the rainy scenery on kunming lake and to keep off the sunshine in summer. There are totally 14,000 pictures painted on the beams and crossbeams of the long corridor. Each of these pictures is different from one another, with almost no repetitions. These colorful paintings can be divided into 4 kinds: landscapes and scenic spots, beautiful flowers and birds, Chinese architecture and human figures. The beautiful flowers and birds and landscapes were copied from the scenery of West Lake. In 1990, the long corridor was listed in the Guinness world records as the longest painted corridor in the world.

Now we are approaching the central part of the long corridor. The central axis line starts from the wharf next to the lake to the temple of the Sea of Wisdom on the top of the Hill. The gate of dispelling clouds is located in the center of the long corridor, and it is the main entrance to the hall of dispelling clouds. Entering the main gate, it is the second gate of the palace. The second gate was the place where emperor guangxu kowtowed to empress dowager cixi, on empress dowager cixi’s birthday celebration.

On the north of the gate, it is the hall of Dispelling Clouds. Here was the place where

empress dowager cixi used to celebrate her birthday. In the ming dynasty, here was the former temple yuanjing temple. In the qing dynasty, during emperor qianlong’s reign, here was the temple of paying great gratitude and wishing for longevity. When empress dowager cixi got the summer palace rebuilt, she built the hall of dispelling clouds. In the center of the hall, there is a dragon throne with a lacquer screen behind it. On each side of the throne, there is a wooden sculpture of the word longevity on the shoulders of two small boy fugures.

The Tower of Buddhist Incense is the symbol of the summer palace just behind the hall of Dispelling Clouds. It is standing in the center of the southern slope of the longevity hill, and also the center of the whole imperial garden. Empress dowager cixi used to come and worship gods here on the 1st and 15th day of each lunar month when she was living in the summer palace. On the north of the Tower of Buddhist Incense, there is a colored glazed arch. On the front side, there are 3 Chinese characters: 众香界，it means the name of the place of the Buddhist state. On the back , they are another 3words: 齐树林，it means the Buddhist temple.

The temple of the Sea of Wisdom is located on the top of the hill, just behind the tower of Buddhist incense. The name of this temple “the sea of wisdom” came from Buddhist scriptures and means “the wisdom of Buddha is as vast as the sea. This building is also known as beamless hall because it was built without using a single beam or column in the structure. There are 1008 Buddha statues carved on the outer wall of the temple. But when the Anglo-French allied forces and the eight allied forces entered the summer palace, most of the Buddha statues were damaged by the invading soldiers.

Now we are walking continually along the Long Corridor, we are going to visit the hall of listening to orioles. Here was built by emperor qianlong for his mother to enjoy peking opera.

Later, here was used by empress dowager cixi. Now it is a very nice restaurant. And now we are at the end of the long corrider. We can see a Marble Boat. It was first built in the emperor qianlong’s reign. There is a famous Chinese saying: “Water can carry a boat, and it also can capsize it.” Therefore the marble boat stood for the stability of the qing dynasty and symbolized that the qing dynasty would be as solid as rock and never be overturned. The marble boat is 36 meters long and it has two decks. The base deck was built of marble, while the upper part was made of wood. Originally, during the time of the garden of clear ripples, there was a Chinese style wooden superstructure built on the top of the boat, and it was painted to look like marble. But the wooden superstructure was burnt down by the Anglo-French allied forces. When empress dowager cixi had the marble boat rebuilt, she ordered to add two water wheels outside the marble boat on each side. Then a European-style wooden superstructure was built on the boat, it was painted to look like marble. The floor was paved with colored bricks. All of the windows were inlaid with multiple-colored glass. A big mirror was installed on the superstructure for viewing rain. When empress dowager cixi was in the summer palace, she often came here on a rainy day, and sit in front of the mirror, sipping tea and enjoying the mirror’s reflection of the beautiful rainy scenery on the lake.

After visiting the scenery of the west part, we will go to the east part of hill. Now we are standing in front of the purple cloud gate-tower. It is on the east slope of longevity. It was built in the emperor qianlong’s reign. The inscription on the south is 紫气东来， it means the purple clouds come from the east. On the north side, it is 赤诚霞起，it means the rosy clouds rising in chicheng mountain.

Next, we are going to visit the garden of harmonious interest.

Thank you for your listening and I hope you can enjoy your visit to the Summer Palace.