红旗渠英文导游词.doc

the Red Flag Canal .Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Its so nice to meet you here!First of all, please allow me to introduce us to you. My name is Li, you can call me English name Heather, your local guide from Henan Youth Travel Agency, while our driver is Mr. Wang who is serious and very experienced. So you are in safe hand. On behalf of Henan Youth Travel Agency, we would like to extend our warmest welcome to you: welcome to Henan. During your stay in Henan, we two would do our utmost to make your stay pleasant! And your cooperation would be appreciated! If you have troubles or problems, dont be hesitated to tell us. We would be very pleased to help you. Wish you a wonderful stay in Henan! Thank you!Perhaps it is the first time for you to visit Henan, so Id like to give you a brief introduction about it!Henan province, also called “Yu” for short, meaning a man pulling an elephant, is situated right in the heart of china, covering an area of 167,000 square kilometers, with a total population of 97 million, which is the largest of all provinces in China. Henan is also named “central plain” or “Central State”, for over 4,000 years ago, China was divided into nine state. Henan was called Yu State, and was located in the middle of the nine state, hence the name. And you may heard Anyang, a city which has a long history.Located in the utmost northern part of Henan, bordering Shanxi in the west and Hebei in the north, the city of Anyang serves as the north gate of Henan. Well-known as one of the state historic and cultural cities, Anyang boasts a history of over 3000 years and is one of the birthplaces of Chinese nation. Today Id like to show you the Red Flag Canal, which have been named by the state as the bases for patriotic education.To the northwest of Anyang lies a city called Linzhou, which sounds a stranger to most people. However, if one starts to talk about the Red Flag Canal of Linxian County, the album of old days will unfold itself in surges. In 1960s when the PRC was suffering its most terrible economic nightmares, the heroic people from Linxian County raised money on their own and began to cut tunnels through mountains and build bridges across gullies with hands, hammers, drills and the tiny bit of self-made explosive. A decade passed. The Taihang Mountain witnessed the birth of a Milky Way on the earth, the Red-Flag Canal . The canal, being composed of trunk, lateral and branch sections, extends 1,500 kilometers along the Taihang Range. Along it the turbulent Zhuozhang River roars all the way to Linzhou City and rewrites the generations history of the county as a place in shortage of water. Forty years was gone, today the Zhuozhang River is stilling running tamely along the mountain and nourishing the beautiful city of Linzhou . We, as admirers of miracle, came to the city in early November to pay our due respect to the Red Flag Canal. So, now please take your valuable things along with you and get ready to get off the bus.Linzhous history was a history of floods and droughts. In order to survive, local people struggled unyieldingly against natural calamity. They tried every possible means, digging water-retention wells and holes in courtyards, storing rain and snow, and drawing water from springs and rivers. All came to nothing. Whenever a drought occurred, there was no water for people and animals to drink, let alone water for irrigation. They had to cross mountains and fetch water from afar. That is very inconvenient for local people. In 1960s local government worked out the plan to draw water from Zhang River , making up mind to transform it. After careful research and consideration, the government identified Zhang River in Pingshun County of Shanxi Province as the potential source of hope. Working together with parties concerned, the courageous people from Linxian County started their fight against nature just after the Spring Festival of 1960.In the course of ten years bard work, with the simple tools as hammers and drills, they cut tunnels through mountains and built bridges across gullies. The earth and stone involved could build a 3-meter-high and 2-meter-wide Great Wall leading from the Southern Guangzhou to Northern Harbin. After its completion the Red Flag Canal solved the problem of water shortage for the Linxian County and a tourist attraction in the Linlv Mountain. Reputed by the visitors as the man-made Milky Way and the Contemporary Great Wall, it has attracted some 40,000 people from 130 countries and regions. However, what benefits the Linxian people most is the spirit developed in the course of the construction of the canal. The spirit can be summarized as self-reliance, teamwork and hard struggle. Because of this spirit the Red Flag Canal has been listed by the state as one of the bases for patriotic education to young people. The main scenic spots of the Red Flag Canal include the General Trunk Canal, Bifurcation Gate and the Youth Cave. Please come with me. Lets go to the Bifurcation Gate. The Bifurcation Gate plays an important role in this regard. It is not only a water control for the three trunk canals but also a water divide geographically. Water in the south runs into Henghe River and water in the north runs into Zhanghe River . It took great pains for the decision-makers and designers to work it out properly. Because if the water of the canal could not cross over the Bifurcation Gate, the irrigation area would be limited to the nearby two towns, reaching only about 12000 acres of arable land. The source of the canal locates on the slop of Houbi Cliff, Shicheng Town of Pingshun County in Shanxi Province. The trunk canal, being built in the hilly slope of Taihang Mountain, is 70.6 kilometers long, 8 meters wide at the bottom and 4.3 meters high. The designed flow capacity is 25 cubic meters per second. The sluice gate lets out two flows, the left one meeting Hero Canal in Hejian Town. The second one running eastward to Madian Village of Hengshui Town , width of 3.5 meters at the bottom. When the river reaches the 500-meter point, the third canal shows up and goes all the way eastward. The crisscross network of trunk, lateral and branch canals provides irrigation for the 88,962- acre farming land in Linxian CountyPlease keep going with me. Lets go to the Youth Cave. The Youth Cave is a very high tunnel in Linlu Mountain . Standing at the ominous position one could not help trembling with the wind. There are a lot of calligraphic works painted by famous artists around. The natural landscape can be described as dramatic, magnificent, perilous and overwhelming. It is at the position where one could fully interpret the proverb, People, and people alone, are the driving force of world history. In the most difficult days 300 young people gathered here to build the 300-meter-long and 8-meter-wide tunnel. Life then was very hard and the workers could hardly have enough to feed themselves. Though ration per person per day was less than 0.7 pounds, the strenuous labor did not frighten them away. The young people fed themselves with herbs and algae, as a result of which, many turned