题一：颐和园的宫廷区(历史沿革;东宫门;仁寿殿;德和园;玉澜堂;宜芸馆;乐寿堂) 　　The Summer Palace is located on the northwest suburbs of Beijing, about 20 kilometers away from the center of the city. The summer palace is formed mainly of longevity hill and kunming lake. It occupies a total area of over 290 hectares. Longevity hill covers one of the three quarters; kunming lake covers the rest of the three quarters. 　　The Summer Palace was first built as an imperial garden at the beginning of 12th century in the Jin Dynasty. The construction continued to the Yuan and Ming dynasties. In the Qing Dynasty, the building of imperial gardens reached the culmination. During Emperor Qianlong’s reign, the famous “Three Hills and Five Gardens” were built on the northwest suburbs of Beijing. The Summer Palace was a part of it and at that time it was called the Garden of Clear Ripples.......详细信息

　　题一：颐和园的宫廷区(历史沿革;东宫门;仁寿殿;德和园;玉澜堂;宜芸馆;乐寿堂)

　　The Summer Palace is located on the northwest suburbs of Beijing, about 20 kilometers away from the center of the city. The summer palace is formed mainly of longevity hill and kunming lake. It occupies a total area of over 290 hectares. Longevity hill covers one of the three quarters; kunming lake covers the rest of the three quarters.

　　The Summer Palace was first built as an imperial garden at the beginning of 12th century in the Jin Dynasty. The construction continued to the Yuan and Ming dynasties. In the Qing Dynasty, the building of imperial gardens reached the culmination. During Emperor Qianlong’s reign, the famous “Three Hills and Five Gardens” were built on the northwest suburbs of Beijing. The Summer Palace was a part of it and at that time it was called the Garden of Clear Ripples.

　　In 1860, the Anglo-French Allied Forces invaded Beijing. The “Three Hills and Five Gardens” were burnt down to ashes. Later, the Empress Dowager Cixi spent the navy fund in order to have the Garden of Clear Ripples rebuilt, and then she renamed the Garden as The Summer Palace. In 1900, the Allied Forces of Eight Powers invaded Beijing. The Summer Palace was once again damaged. It was rebuilt again in 1902. In 1924, the Last Emperor Puyi was driven out of the palace. After that, the Summer Palace was turned into a public park.

　　The east palace gate is the main entrance of the Summer Palace. In the old days the emperor and the empress went in through the central gate. The princes and the high ranking officials used the gateways on both sides. On top of the gate there is a plaque with three Chinese characters ‘The Summer Palace’ in Emperor Guangxu’s handwriting.

　　Inside the Summer Palace we can see the second gate of the garden— the Gate of Benevolence and Longevity. In front of the gate, there are two strange-looking stones known as the stone of the monkey king on the left, and the piggy stone on the right.

　　Passing through the Gate of Benevolence and Longevity，we can see a huge rock known as taihu rock. There are four strangely shaped rocks placed in each corner of this courtyard, representing the four seasons of the year. The bronze mythical animal behind the Taihu Rock is known as Qilin. According to ancient chinese mythology, the dragon had nine sons, but none of them became a real dragon. This one was believed to be one of the nine sons of the dragon. The reason why it was put here was the emperor believed that it could detect any disloyal subjects.

　　In front of the hall, there are two pairs of incense burners in the shape of a dragon and a phoenix. According to the feudal system, the dragon should be put first with the phoenix besides it. But here, we can see the phoenix is the first. Because the empress dowager cixi was in power in the qing dynasty, the dragon and phoenix incense burners were placed in that way.

　　Inside the hall, we can see the emperor’s throne in the middle of the dais. Behind the throne, there are two big fans on both sides; they are made of peacock feathers. Also, there is a big screen with a real sandalwood frame and glass mirror. Inlaid the mirror there are 226 Chinese characters of the word longevity. There are two scrolls on each side of the wall with a big Chinese character longevity that is the 100 bats painted on ground. Hung above the throne, there is a plaque with 4chinese characters; it means the person who shows the benevolence in running the government can live a long life.

　　Actually, the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity was the place where Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi held audience and handled state affairs when they were in the Summer Palace.

　　We are now visiting the Garden of Virtuous Harmony, where Empress Dowager Cixi enjoyed Beijing Opera performances. It mainly consists of the Dressing House, the Grand Theater Building and the Hall of Pleasure Smile.

　　The Grand Theater Building is one of the three main theater buildings of the Qing Dynasty. The Grand Theater Building is the tallest and largest one. It is 21 meters high and 17 meters wide. The Grand Theater Building is a three-storied structure building. Performances could be staged simultaneously on three levels. The top one was a symbol of happiness, the middle level was emolument level and the bottom stage was named longevity stage and the whole stage is open to three sides. The Hall of Pleasure Smile is right opposite to the Grand Theater Building. The Empress Dowager Cixi used to sit inside the hall to watch and enjoy the Peking Opera.

　　The hall of jade ripples was built along the bank of kunming lake behind the hall of benevolence and longevity. In the late qing dynasty, it was emperor guangxu’s private linving quarters. But after the failure of the reform movement in 1898, emperor guangxu was under house arrest here.

　　On the north side of the jade ripples we can see the Chamber of Collecting Books. The name of the building in Chinese called yiyunguan. Yun is a kind of weed; it can prevent the insets from eating books. Yiyun means suitable for storing books. In the Emperor Qianlong’s reign, the purpose of the hall was for collecting books. Later it was converted into a residence. Here used to be the residence of Guangxu’s Empress Longyu, and his favorite concubine Zhenfei.

　　The Hall of Happiness and Longevity was empress dowager cixi’s residence. In front of the Hall of Happiness and Longevity there is a huge rock placed in the middle of this courtyard named “Qing Zhi Xiu” and nicknamed as “Family Bankruptcy Rock”. This huge rock was discovered in Fangshan District by a Ming official Mi Wanzhong. He wanted to transport it to his own garden “Shaoyuan”. In the old days, transporting such rock was very difficult. After spending all his money to ship it, he still could not succeed in doing this. The big rock was then left on the roadside somewhere near Liangxiang County, 30 kilometers southwest of Beijing. Hence it was nicknamed “Family Bankruptcy Rock”. Later Emperor Qianlong discovered it and transported to the Garden of Clear Ripples and laid it in front of the Hall of Happiness and Longevity. In the courtyard, there are pairs of bronze deer, bronze crane and big water vats symbolizing universal peace, because they have a similar pronunciation to six harmonious and six peaces. The hall of Happiness and Longevity consists of 4 chambers. In the center of the hall, there is a long table. The empress dowager cixi had her meals everyday here when she was in the summer palace. A pair of porcelain plates is placed on each side of the long table for holding fruit. The fruit was not for eating but for its fragrance. In each corner surrounding the table there are 4 incense burners shaped with 9 peaches. They are called big incense burner with nine peaches, because the peach is the symbol of longevity. The lights hanging up in the middle of the ceiling in the hall of happiness and longevity were presented by the Germans. Installed in 1903, they were one of the earliest electric lights officially used in china. The power station was installed in the courtyard of wenchang pavilion southwest of the summer palace.