【正文】 at Yuan Shikai, a selfacclaimed warlordturned emperor moved the throne further back because he was afraid that the mirror might fall on him. In 1916 when Yuan Shikai became emperor, he removed the original throne with a Westernstyle, highback chair. After the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 the throne was found in a shabby furniture warehouse. It repaired and returned to the hall.
(Leading the tourist to the bronze vats either on the east or the west)
the water vats in front of the palaces or house were called ―menhai,‖ or sea before the door by the ancient Chinese. They believed that with a sea by the door, fire could not wreak havoc. The vats served both as a decoration and as a fire extinguisher. They were kept full of water all year round.
During the Qing Dynasty, they were altogether 308 vats in the palace enclosure. They were made of gilt bronze or iron. Of course, the gilt bronze vats were of the best quality. When the allied forces (Britain, Germany, France, Russia, the United States, Italy, Japan and Austria) invaded Beijing in 1900 under the pretext of suppressing the Boxer Rebellion, the invaders ransacked the imperial pound and scraped and gold off the vats with their bayonets. During the Japanese occupation of Beijing, many vats were trucked away by the Japanese to be made into bullets.
(In front of the Hall of Complete Harmony)
篇三：北京胡同英語導(dǎo)游詞
Good morning，Ladies and Gentlemen：Wele to Beijing，and wele to today’s Hutong tour！First of all，I would like to start with the term”Hutong”，HUTONG what does Hutong mean？
According to experts，the word Hutong originated from Mongolian language meaning”Well”.In ancient times，people tended to gather and live around wells. So the original meaning of Hutong should be”a place where people gather and live.” Nobody knows exactly how many Hutongs there are in nowadays Beijing. But one thing is for sure，if we connected all the Hutongs together，their total length would even be longer than the famous Great wall，which is about 4000 miles longer.
Today you can find various Hutongs with different shapes，lengths or shortest one is only 40 centimeters wide, And some Hutongs have more than 20 turns. As we walk through the Hutongs，you may find most of them look almost the same with graycolored walls and bricks. Actually inside those walls are the courtyard houses，where people live. In Chinese we call them”siheyuan”.
The gate building of each Siheyuan is the only thing that we can see along the Hutongs. Chinese people used to try to protect their privacy from being intruded by strangers. So the gate building，in old times，was a symbol to show the position of each house owner. look at thtis one nest door，it has the lion design，because that owner used to be a military officer. Interesting？
Now let’s see the doorway. Almost every doorway has a threshold，that high step over there. For what reason they put a big step at the door？You know Chinese people believe all the evil spirits are short. They can not jump over high steps. So the threshold is actually for warding off evil spirits.
In old times，transportation was not as convenient as today，so street vendors played a very important role in Hutong life. They wandered from lane to lane selling various goods or providing all kind of services. People could judge the goods or services from their peddling or the sounds of their special instruments. The food they sold usually include baked pancakes，seasoned millet mush，or Youzhaguo，a kind of deepfried twisted dough sticks，and all kinds of vegetables.
But now，with modern life all around， it’s hard for people to hear the traditional melodious hawking. Look at the crowd sitting over there！What do you think they are doing？Talking about Vic Tanny？Oprah’s？Or just gossiping？Any ideas？Let’s go and see！
Oh，they are building a new Great Wall. But their bricks are Chinese Mahjong！A very popular pastime among the Hutong people，especially among the senior citizens who have retired.
The main attraction of Hutong life is friendly and interpersonal munication.
Children living in one courtyard play together and grow up together like one big family. We want to save it as a treasure to show our later generations what Beijing used to be like.
OK. Time files. It’s almost the end of the tour. Today，through our Hutong tour，I hope you are not only happy with what you have seen but also get a better understanding of the culture and people in the Hutong area.
Thank you for your attention，and hope you enjoy the rest of the tour in China！
女士們先生們，早上好：
歡迎你們來到北京，歡迎你們參加胡同游。首先，我將從“胡同”一詞說起。專家認(rèn)為，“胡同”這個(gè)詞來源于蒙古語，意思是“井”。古時(shí)候人們生活和聚集在井的周圍，所以“胡同”一詞的本意應(yīng)是“人們生活聚集的地方”。不管它確切意思如何，有一點(diǎn)是可以肯定的，胡同在北京第一次出現(xiàn)是在元朝。
今天我們看到的大多數(shù)胡同是明清兩代產(chǎn)物，沒有人能夠確切的說出北京有多少胡同。但有一點(diǎn)很清楚，如果將各個(gè)胡同連接起來，總長度超過著名的萬里長城。
今天您可以發(fā)現(xiàn)不同形狀、長度和方向的胡同。最短的胡同只有10米長，最窄的胡同僅40厘米寬，也就是說象我這樣的身材需要側(cè)身走才能穿過胡同，還有些胡同有20多個(gè)彎。 當(dāng)我們進(jìn)入胡同時(shí)，您也許發(fā)現(xiàn)幾乎所有的墻和磚都是灰色的。其實(shí)，在這些墻的后面就是居民的家，我們稱其為“四合院”。
在胡同中我們只能看見四合院的大門。古時(shí)候的中國人不希望有陌生人來打擾，因此從大門的樣子就可以看出主人的身份和地位。例如這個(gè)門，又高又大，門檐有磚雕裝飾。仔細(xì)看它的圖案，李子花和竹子，這意味著這里的主人曾是侍奉皇帝左右的王公大臣。看旁邊的門，有獅子的圖案，這說明這里曾住著武官。有趣吧？
讓我們看看門口中，幾乎每個(gè)門口都有一條橫木，它的作用是驅(qū)邪避難。民間傳說小鬼很矮，他們無法跳過高的臺(tái)階，所以設(shè)此橫木。
過去，交通不象現(xiàn)在這樣發(fā)達(dá)，街頭小販在胡同中起到重要作用，他們往來于胡同間，販賣各種貨品或提供各種服務(wù)。人們可以從不同的叫賣聲中辨別他們要賣什么或提供什么樣的服務(wù)。他們賣的食品主要是煎餅、小米粥、油炸果、油條和一些蔬菜。理發(fā)師則不需要吆喝，他只需要拿著理發(fā)工具做好本職工作即可。但是在現(xiàn)在，這里已是現(xiàn)代化生活氛圍，已經(jīng)很難聽到老北京那清脆的叫賣聲了。
那邊坐著一群人，你們知道他們正在做什么呢？他們?cè)谛扌麻L城呢！他們使用的是最新的磚——麻將牌。它是非常流行的消遣方式，特別在退休的老年人中倍受青睞。
胡同生活的最大魅力在于人與人之間的友好交往。孩子們?cè)谝黄痖L大，如同一家人一樣。因此，我國政府打算保護(hù)這一地區(qū)，沒有政府批準(zhǔn)，不得在這一地區(qū)拆蓋高樓，為我們的子孫后代保留這份寶貴遺產(chǎn)。
時(shí)間真快！我們就要結(jié)束今天的旅行了我希望您不僅大飽眼福，而且更了解胡同文化和這里的人們。如果有一天您再次來訪，我將邀請(qǐng)您來我家做客。
謝謝大家！希望大家盡情享受余下的中國之旅！
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