Good morning, ladies and gentlemen:
I am very glad to serve as your guide today. You can call me Lily. Pleasekeep my name card at hand. f you have any trouble or lose your way, just callme. My number is here. I’ll do my best to serve for you.
Now we are in front of the Prince Gong’s Mansion. It was the residence ofHe Shen. He was the Prime Ministery and the Minister of Defence in the years ofQanlong, the most prosperous stage of Qing Dynasty. In1850s, the mansion wasbestowed on Prince Gong. Compared with the Forbidden City, it seems to be alittle less famous. Why we come here ? The answer is its first owner, He Shen,is a very famous person in Chinese history. Every Chinese knows him no matterthe kids or the old. There are even many novels, poems, movies and TV seriestelling his story. Why is he so well-known? Because he was the corruptestofficial in Chinese history. You can’t imagine how large amount of his graft is.The successive Emperor Jiaqing sentenced He′to death and took possession of histreasure. The money he left behind amounted to 4,000 tons of silver, equalingten years’ income of the national treasury. If you change it into US dollars, itis 520 billion! I wonder how he got so large amount of money in only one life.Certainly, he paid lots of manpowers and materials to build his own mansion. Itis the largest and the best preserved Prince Mansion in Beijing. As you see, thePalace Museum is grand, national and formal. I think this one is more personal.You can see another style of Chinese building . Now, let’s begin our wonderfulvisit. Follow me, please!
The gate you see is called Western Gate. Are you familiar with it? Yes, thearchitect learned something from Europe. Nowadays, it is very common to seethere are different kinds of styles coming from different countries in a garden.But in Qing Dynasty, the emperor didn’t want any communication with othercountries. So this kind of gate was really rare, at that time. There were onlythree Western Gates all over the country. One was this. The other two were bothin imperial garden.
Let’s enter the garden.. Can you smell the fresh air and sweet fragrance?It’s really comfortable. Pay attention to the thin stone, please. It is notartificial but natural. ts name is Joy Peak. In China, it’s tradition to put ahuge stone or screen in front of the gate. It can protect the good luck andwealth from flowing away and ward off evil spirits. It is still true today.Besides, because of its existence you can’t see the inner scene directly. You’llbe curious and have a strong desire to go in. But, this one has another specialfunction. Look at it using you imagination. What does it look like? (Here andhere)Yes ! It looks like a holy mother hugging her son. Even though He′had manywives, he still didn’t have a son in his middle age. He was so worried aboutthis until he found this stone. He expected it would bring him a son. It iswonderful that He′got the only son in his life the next year. What a happycoincidence!
After going around the stone, the Bat Pond comes into our view. It getsthis name because its shape was like a bat. Why he like such an animal? Evenmyself as a Chinese can’t understand this at first. IN most people’s mind, thisanimal represents something evil. Now I get the answer. In Chinese, thepronunciation of bat is…and the pronunciation of happiness is…They are the same!There are 9999 bats in the garden. This is one of the specialties of PrinceGong’s Mansion. Of course, they are not real, hey are pictures or symbols. Haveyou noticed the four elm trees around the pond? Do you feel them a littlestrange? Look! They all grow to the heart of the pond, Their branches are abovethe pond. As a result, when autumn comes, the fruit and leaves of them will dropinto the pond.
Are you confused? Why he built this? Of course, it has a further meaning.The shape of elm’s fruit and leaves is very similar with Chinese bronze coin.He′hinted his ambition to gather all the wealth in his own wallet. At last heactually got it. In addition, all the water in the mansion is circulating. Itwill keep fresh and clear all the year round. If you are careful enough, you mayfind that there are few rivers in Beijing. In ancient time, if you wanted ariver flow over your garden, you must get the emperor’s permission. So it is afairly great honor to have this. You can see how much the emperor appreciateHe′! You can go around to take photos here. It will bring you good luck andwealth because of the pong and the artificial hill. There is a great secretunder the hill. I will tell it to you after a while. Now, if you have anyquestion, ask me please! We will climb the hill after a quarter. Is that OK?
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