莆田英文简介.doc

Good morning, Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Putian. My name is Xiao Gao. You can call me Joan. Im the local guide from China staff travel service Putian branch. Today well visit the first ancestral temple-Meizhou Mazu ancestral temple. As we go, Ill mention places of interest and talk about their history, culture or political importance. It is going to be quite a day for you. I am glad to be of service. Im expecting your cooperation and eager to offer good service. I wish your stay a pleasant one. Thank you.Now please allow me to introduce the outline of Putian city. Putian, located in the middle of eastern coast of Fujian, including Putian and Xianyou Counties, covers an area of 3781 km2 and has a population of 3,000,000. It is on the west bank of the Taiwan Straits, on the north of Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province and the south of Quanzhou and Xiamen special economic zone. Putian, called Xinghua in the past, has enjoyed a long history; Putian county was established in 568,the second year of Chen Guangda in the Southern Dynasty, and Xianyou County in 699,the second year of Shenli in the reign of Wuzhou in the Tang Dynasty. Later, both the counties were affiliated to Xinghua Region in the Song and Ming Dynasties until 1949 when they were transferred to Jinjiang Prefecture and later to Putian Prefecture. Putian City was founded in 1983. Putian is well endowed with natural resources and has cultivated a large number of talented personalities. In the past, men of letters came out from here in large numbers, bringing to it a title “cultural center by the sea”. The scenic attractions include Mazhu Temple, Guanghua Temple and Mulan Dam. Litchis are produced in large quantity here in Putian, thus it was called “The Litchi City” in the past, while sugar-canes brought about the name of “poem of sugarcane” to the land. With hosts of sports stars originating from Putian and wining their reputations all over the world, Putian acquires the title of hometown of track-and-field men. Putian is unique for its custom and culture. The diligence of the people, the strong local accent, the strange Mazhu costumes, the Putian Opera are all full of interest; the traditonal rites and the architectural style are colorful. PuTian has special dialect. It is said that the dialect of Putian is the official language used during Tang Dynasty. After Tang Dynasty, in order to avoid the war in North China, many people moved from the region of Yellow River to Fujian Province. They brought the advanced technology and culture together with the official language. In Putian City, it is isolated from the other cities. The ancient Tang language was able to pass on without large changes there. In schools, some old Chinese teachers especially prefer to read ancient poems in Putian Dialect.Putian has a coastline measuring 343.6 kilometers, making up 10.3 percent of the provinces total length. Meizhou Bay is situated between Fuzhou and Xiamen harbors, and also in the middle of Shanghai and Zhanjiang, and Manila and Tokyo harbors. Xiuyu Harbor is a deep-water ice-free port capable of building more than 150 10,000-ton class berths. It is situated on a 30-kilometer length of coastline 10 meters deep. Ships of a 100,000-tonnage come and go freely, as do those of a 200,000-tonnage when the tide is high. It is one of Chinas four international inter-ports, as designated by the Ministry of Communications. The development of Meizhou bay and the Xiuyu Port reveals this places prospects-a prosperous port city.Putians pillar industries of shoe-making, brewing, electronics, garments, foodstuffs, and machinery have earned the city its epithets “Shoe City”, “Beer City”, and “Electronic City”. The citys foreign-funded Jiatong Tire Co., Ltd., ranks first nationwide in this trade in terms of sales volume, and the Fujian Xuejin Beer Group Co., Ltd., is among the top ten in its field. Putian High-tech Industrial Park, which houses 149 enterprises from 13 countries and regions, is the largest electronic calculator production base in Asia. The Xinwei Electronics Co., Ltd., produces 400,000 electronic calculators daily, and its products are sold to Southern and Western Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Russia, making up 30 percent of the international market. In 2002, Putians GDP had an increase of 11.6 percent over the previous year, making it second in the province. Its growth in gross industrial output value and in the disposable income of its urban inhabitants is top in the province. Putians agriculture has been industrialized, forming five major production bases in aquatic products, fruits, livestock, edible mushrooms, and vegetables. Putian is famous for its fruits, in which the loquat, lychee and the longan are the most famous. The longan features big core and thin skin, much juice anf delicious taste. It has more than 60 sorts. In the ancient it is one of the best contributes to the emperor. And now it is one of the fruits that all the tourists both in China and abroad would like to buy. The lychee is also the local product of putian. It is about 20 kinds. In 2001 and 2002, its annual output of loquats exceeded 30,000 tons, making up 40 percent of the national total, and ranking first in Fujian Province for ten successive years. Putian also takes the lead in raising eels. Chinas largest eel trading center is located in a street in Putians Hanjiang New Port, which also serves as Chinas largest eel pricing and information center.Putian is the famous hometown of overseas Chinese. Emigration overseas started in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). According to statistics, overseas Chinese and foreign nationals originating in Putian amount to 600,000, and reside in more than 40 countries and regions on the five continents, 90 percent of them in Southeast Asia. There are many classroom buildings, science-technology buildings, outpatient buildings and senior citizens homes named after overseas Chinese in Putian. Many overseas Chinese have invested in factories in their hometown, thus making substantial contributions to Putians prosperity.Putian is also where the Mazu Culture originated, and is site of the South Shaolin Temple. Every year on the 23rd day of the third lunar month (Mazus birthday) and on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month (when she became an immortal) grand sacrificial ceremonies are held on Meizhou Island. Mazu followers from all over the world gather here to worship this goddess of the sea. Meizhou Island is therefore called “Mecca of the Orient”. There are more than 3,000 Mazu temples in more than 20 countries throughout the world.Chinas Shaolin martial arts are in two schools: north and south. The Shaolin Temple on Mount Songshan in Henan Province is famous for its leg techniques, while the Shaolin Temple on Mount Linshan is famous for its fist techniques. In 1992, a press conference was held in Beijings Great Hall of the People, announcing the reconstruction of South Shaolin Temple. Construction of the first-phase project, lasting four years, now is complete.As to the custom, on the spring festival, putian civilians have New Year on 1st January in lunar calendar. And they cant go out on 2nd and celebrate their parents anniversary for their parents on 3rd. but they still have a big eve on 4th. They eat noodles on 5th and the lantern festival on 15th. On the dragon-boat festival they put up calamus on the door. They wrap pyramid-shaped dumplings to eliminate the evil factors. On 9th of September of the lunar year, they fry “nine-storied rice3-pie”.Putian is also famous for its 24 beautiful landscape. It has Hugong Mountain- the symbol of the famous cultural county, Mulan Dam- the wonder of water project, the famous south Shaolin temple, the Guanghua temple- the four famous temple of Fujian province and the Nine Carp Lakethe three ultimate beauties of Fujian province.Now we are approaching the city center. Ahead of us is Guqiao building. It is very magnificent. It was built in 983 A.D. its predecessor was the city wall of song Dynasty. In 983 Xinghua troop moved to Putian and built the building. In 1136 the building was ruined in a big fire and restored at that year. Then it continued to undergo many ups and downs. In the Qing dynasty during the reign of emperor Kangxi the Guqiao building was rebuilt. After liberation, great changes took place in it. It has been painted several times and looks more spectacular.Guqiao building consists of the foundation and the wall. It is 42 meters long, 15 meters width and 25 meters high, of which the base is 5 meters high. It looks like Beijing tiananmen rostrum. On the left o tit writes on “the longlife of the peoples republic of China” and on the right “the longevity of the union of the whole world”.Now what you see is Mulan Dam. Mulan Dam, built in the Northern Song Dynasty at the foot of Mulan Mountain, is one of the best preserved ancient large-scale water projects. According to records, Qian Siniang, a lady from Changle, and Lin Chongshi, a man from the same place, tried in separate efforts to build a dam here in the first year of Zhiping in the Song Dynasty (A.D.1064), but they both failed because of their wrong choice of the site, In the eighth year of Xining in the Song Dynasty (A.D.1075), Li Hong from Hougan, in response to the imperial edict, made another attempt. He drew the lessons of his predecessors and chose another site, with the help of monk Fen Zhiri. The dam took eight years to build. It is a 219.31m dam, with 32 sluice gates. The water is led from the east and south ends of the dam to the north and south plains, irrigating an area of about 32,000 acres. As Mulan Dam has benefited generations of after generations of people, the Mulan Memorial was built in honor of the four who made their contributions.In the distance you can see Hugong Mountain. According to legend, in the ancient time our ancestor once lived there. It is very magnificent and spectacular, so it becomes the symbol of Putian -“famous culture county”. As you see, it is piercing and winding, which stands over 710 meters above sea level while its relative altitude isnt high. However, it isnt the highest mountain in Putian. Hugong Mountain boasts for its ten relics of Neolithic stone epoch.According to the legend, there was a man- Hugong who once lived there. Nine immortals ever climbed to call on him. Thus the name was given. Hugong Mountain is featured by her three ultimate beautiful sceneries, which are the fantastic scenery, the seas of cloud and the sun-rise. There are more than 20 temples around it. So it gets the name-Immortal Mountain.Now we are approaching the hometown of Former Residence of Plum Queen. Plum Queen was originally a duck herding girl called Jiang caiping, by the Mulan River in Putian. She was a poetess and good at writing poem. In the twelfth year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty, she was selected to court because of her beauty and wisdom. Loved by Emperor Xuanzong, she was granted the title of “Fei”(imperial concubine). As an active support of Xuanzongs open polity, she won his great favor, and as a great lover of plums, she was called “plum fairy” or, in a term of endearment, “plum Queen”and “plum concubine”. Later when Yang Yuhuan, a matchless beauty at the time, entered the court, she was jealousy of Plum Queen and mage Plum Queen ended up in the latters exile to the Shangyang Palace. In the Rebellion of An Lushan, tang xuanzong fled to the south with yang yuhuan without taking Plum Queen along. Plum Queen committed suicide by throwing herself into a well. The legend goes that Plum Queen once returned to her native village Jiangdong and introduced what is now Puxian Opera, which Emperor allowed her to bring back home, to be developed by local artists. Today, a building in ancient palace style, named Pukou Palace was erected in Jiangdong Village in honor of Plum Queen. Not far away is a huge stone tablet stately engraved The Former Residence of Plum Queen. Now we are in the north coast of Meizhou bay. Putian is divided into two county and four districts: Putian county, Xianyou county, Chengxiang district, Hanjiang district, the North Coast of Meizhou bay and Meizhou Island Administration District. The north coast of Meizhou bay was built in 1996. It comprises Hushi town, Lingchun town, Zhongmen town and Xiuyu town. It is l