中山陵英文导游词

my dear friends, w hen you come to a city, you probably w ant to visit the most famous scenic spots of special interest. nanjing has many places of historic interests and has been capital for six "dynasties." but if you leave nanjing w ithout visiting dr. sun yat-sen's mausoleum, undoubtedly you have missed the most arresting and famous tourist attraction of the city.

talking about the mausoleum w e should have an idea about sun yat-sen, the great pioneer of chinese democratic revolution. mr. sun's original name is sun w en and styled himself yat-sen. so foreign friends w ould call him "dr. sun yat-sen". since he took "w oodcutter in zhoushan" as his alias w hen he took part in the revolutionary activities, he w as respectfully and w idely called mr. sun zhongshan in china. on october 12, 1866, mr. sun w as born in a farmer's family in caiheng village of xiangshan county (the present-day zhongshan city), guangdong province. w hen he w as still young, he had great expectations. he studied medicine in honolulu, hong kong and some other places and after graduation he w orked as a practitioner in gangzhou, macao and other places later he gave up medicine as his profession to take part in political activities. in 1905, he set up china alliance organization in japan and he w as elected president. he put forw ard the famous guiding pr inciple-"driving the invaders out, restoring the sovereignty of china, establishing a republic and equalizing the land

ow nership" and the three people's principles-"nationalis m, democracy and the people's livelihood." on october 10, 1911, the w uchang uprising broke out and dr. sun as elected president of the republic of china by representatives from seventeen prov inces. on the follow ing new year's day (january 1, 1912) mr. sun took the oath of office in nanjing. from then on, mr. sun exper ienced yuan shikai's usurpation, the second revolution, "campaign protecting the inter im constitution." in 1921, mr. sun took the position of president in unusual times in guangzhou. at the first national congress of kuomintang held in quangzhou in 1924, he perfected the original three people's pr inciples and put forw ard three people's new principles. he also proposed the policies of "making an alliance w ith russia and the communist party of china and helping the farmers and w orkers." in november 1924, in spite of his illness, mr. sun w ent up to beijing to discuss state affairs w ith gener al feng yuxiang.

unfortunately, he broke dow n from constant overw ork and passed aw ay on march 12, 1925.

the location of the mausoleum w as chosen by mr. sun himself. her e is exactly a good place to build a mausoleum. you may w onder: mr. sun w as born in guangdong but died in beijing. for his w hole life he traveled throughout china for the revolution. w hy did he choose nanjing as t he venue of his tomb?

it is said that far before mr. sun took office in 1912, the abbot of lingu monastery had recommended him that his place is good for fengshui, because it faces the plain and is backed up by green mountains as its protective screen. on march 31, 1912 mr. sun resigned as a political compromise for the sake of the union of the north china and the south china. one day of the early april, he w ent hunting w ith hu hanmin around the piety tomb of ming dynasty. they took a rest in the place w here the mausoleum is located now. mr. sun looked around and said "if possible i w ould like my country men to allow me to have this place to bury my coffin." surely, the fengshui of the zijing mountain is not the basic reason for the location of mr. sun's mausoleum. the basic reason is that, he said on dying "after my death, you can bury me at the foot of the zijin mountain in nanjing in memory of the revolution of 1911, because nanjing is w here the temporary government w as founded. "so although mr. sun stayed in nanjing not a long time, it had a special meaning to him. fundamentally speaking, the reason he chose zijing mountain as his per manent resting-place is to commemorate the revolution of 1911 and to encourage the revolutionaries.

in order to respect mr. sun's w ish, the preparatory committee of sun yat-sen's funeral, including his w ife song qingling and his son sunke, examined the area and chose the site for the mausoleum. they delimited 2000 mu and offered a rew ard in new spaper for the best design of the mausoleum. among all the contribution, young architect lu yanzhi's design, a design in the shape of a bell, w as highly praised and gained the first prize and he himself w as invited to supervise the w hole project as w ell.

on march 12,1926, the first anniversary of mr. sun's death, the project got started and 3 years later, it w as completed in spr ing of 1929. it cost 1.5 million silver collars totally. unfortunately, luyanzhi, the young architect w ith great gift, suffered w hen supervising the project, and died at 35, just before the completion of the mausoleum. the completion ceremony w as held on june 1, 1929 and mr. sun's remains w ere transported from beijing to nangjing. from then on, mr. sun has slept here for near ly 70 years.

the construction of dr. sun yat-sen's mausoleum w as an important event in the history of nanjing. in order to meet mr. sun's coffin, the first asphalt road w as built from zhongshan port in the w est to zhongshan gate in the east; it is 12 kilometres in length and also called zhongshan road. up to today, zhangshan road is still one of the most important main roads. at the same time, the city gate chaoyang gate w hich w as built in ming dynasty w as renovated and changed its name to zhongshan gate. betw een zhongshang gate and dr. sun yat-sen's mausoleum, a road called the mausoleum road w as built. just as the people of paris take pride of their les champs-elysees and the people of new york, the fifth avenue, the nanjing people ar e proud of their boulevards. and the 3 kilometers long mausoleum road is undoubtedly the best representative of these boulevar ds. along both sides of the "gr een corridor" grow s the main kind of tree in nanjing as parasols usually chinese people call them french plane trees, in fact they are chinese local products. just because frenchmen took them from yunnan pr ovince to france and later they transplanted them in their leased terr itory in shanghai, that is w hy they got such a name.

now, w e are going out of the zhongshan gate and driving along the mausoleum road. the destination ahead is a square in shape of crescent. according to lu yanzhi's design, the place of the mausoleum is like a "duo", a big w ooden bell, w hich w as used to announce a policy, decree or a w ar in ancient time. duo's sound is loud and clear, implying to make the w hole w orld peaceful and happy. the design reminds the people of dr. sun yat-sen's well-know n saying "the revolution is far from success and w e should continue w orking hard." this saying also serves s an alert to the later generation. the crescent-shaped squar e is the bottom of the "bell of freedom".

now, please look to the south. there is an octagon platfor m structured w ith reinforced concrete but covered w ith jinshan stone of suzhou. the platfor m is divided into three layers and each layer is enclosed by stone r ails. the copper "ding" (an ancient cooking vessel) w ith tw o looped handles and tw o legs w eighs 5000 kg. it is 4.25 meters high and its diameter is 1.23 meters. it is one of the construction for memory of the mausoleu m. the "ding " w as built in autumn, 1933 w ith donation of students and teaching staff of the zhongshan university and mr. dai jitao. one side of the "ding " is engraved w ith three characters "intelligence, humanity and brevity". these three w ords are the school instruction of zhongshan university. inside of the "ding "stands a hexagon copper tablet on w hich dai jitao's mother's handw riting of the "filial piety" is engraved. to the bell-shaped mausoleum the "ding " is just like the pendulum. it seems to serve to alar m the w hole nation by striking the bell.

stepping on the steps, w e w ill see a soaring memor ial archw ay w ith four columns. the archw ay was built betw een 1931 and 1933, 12meters high and 17.3 meters in w idth. it is made of huge granite from fujian province, but its structure is in chinese traditional w ood structure style. now, look up at the shining w ords

inscribed on the horizontal boar d. the w ord in english mean fraternity. they w ere w ritten by dr. sun yat-sen. the word are taken from a tang dynasty poet han yu's "fraternity is humanity " .it is said that mr. sun very much liked to w rite these tw o w ords to others. dr. sun devoted his w hole life to bourgeois democratic revolution w ith great fraternity and struggled for the national independence and freedom fro scores of years. so w e can say that "fraternity" is the best generalization of his life.

further from the fraternity archw ay, there is a road leading to the mausoleum. the road is 480 meters long and dozens of meters w ide. the w hole design of the mausoleum gives prominence to chinese traditional style, grand, solemn and specific. in order to embody the greatness of mr. sun, the mausoleum follow ed the example of ancient mausoleums and w as built against mountains and the coffin chamber w as placed at the top of the mountain that is 160 meters high. in addition, the plants of the mausoleum are sy mmetric, w hich make it feel more solemn. now, please look forw ard to the north, along the hillside, situate the mausoleum gate, the stele pavilion, the memorial hall and the coffin chamber right behind. the pines, cypresses, ginkgoes and maples on the both sides of the road represent mr. sun's revolutionary spirit and lofty quality. they take the place of statues and stone beasts w hich usually flanked the sacred road in anc ient times. among the trees, cedar is one of the "four kinds of tree for appreciation" and has been honored as the tree of nanjing city. the grand archw ay at the end of the mausoleum road is the formal beginning of the mausoleum area. it is 16 meters high, 27 meters w ide and 8.8 meters deep. it is made of granite from the fujian prov ince, too. inscribed on the horizontal boar d of the middle passage is dr. sunyat-sen's handw riting. it means that the state doesn't belong to one family but belongs to the entire nation and the common people. this is the goal for w hich mr. sun struggled for his w hole life and it is also the excellent explanation of the democracy of the three people's pr inciples. w e have passed the gate of the mausoleum, then in front of us is the stele pavilion. the 9-meter high stele in the middle of the pavilion w as engraved w ith 24 gold-plating characters of yan zhenqing style, "chinese kmt buried premier sun here on june 1, 18th year of the republic of china". these w ords w ere w ritten by one of the founder members of kmt, tan yankai. when talking about setting up a stele, w ang jing w ei and hu hanmin w ere arranged to w rite an inscription for mr. sun, but tw o years passed, yet nothing they could w rite. because they thought that mr. sun's merits couldn't be generated by w ord, then they chose to use the present from to praise dr. sun w ithout engraving an inscription.

going out of the pavilion, w e'll see numerous layers of steps. the people of nanjing often say that the steps in the mausoleum w are as number as the stone lions on lugou br idge (know n for westerners as marco polo bridge). so w hen coming here tourists usually ask, "how many steps on earth are there in the mausoleum?" my friends, if you are interested you can count them.

now w e are coming near the top platfor m. look, there are tw o big copper "ding". they w ere contributed by shanghai municipal government of that time. now, please look carefully. there are tw o holes in the bottom of the left "ding". w hy? just let me tell you .in late 1937, w hen the japanese ar my attac ked nanjing, their shooting left tw o holes in the left ding. now, although the circumstances have changed, the tw o holes alw ays remind chinese people not to forget the national humiliation. not far aw ay, there are tw o bronze dings in ancient style. they are presented by mr. sun's son sun ke and his family.

ascending the steps, now w e have reached the top of the platfor m. here w e can have a bird-view of w hat it is in the distance. the memorial hall is the half w ay up to the mountain and there are altogether 392 steps covered if you count from the archw ay of fraternity. the vertical distance is 70 meters but the plane distance is 700 meters. if you count the steps from the stele pavilion, the number of steps is 290. in order to avoid monotone, the architect divided the 392 steps into 10 parts and every part has a platform and there are totally 10 such

platfor ms. more marvelous, if you look up from the bottom, you can see that the steps extend to the top w ithout stop and you cant see any platform. but if you look dow n from the top, you only see the platfor ms. the number of the steps, 392, is not a random number; it implied the number of chinese population at that time-392 million.

now w e are in front of the memorial hall and the coffin chamber. they are the major parts of the mausoleum. the construction of these tw o building w as supervised then by lu yanzhi, the gift young designer. if is w hen he was doing these tw o building he died of cancer. so w hen the later generation mentions him they w ould often say, "it is a great pity he died before his complete success." the structure of the sacrificed hall is of an ancient wooden palace style. it is 30 meters long, 25 meters w ide and 29 meter high, surrounded by s maller constructions of fortress style and tw o 12.6-meter-high cloud columns. its roof, w ith double-eaves and nine ridges, is covered w ith blue glare tiles. the outside of w all is covered w ith granite from hongkong. the inscription on the hor izontal board is engraved w ith seal char acters cut in relief- "naturalis m" "democracy" and "the people's livelihood". these ar e the most bas ic and general guiding principles of mr. sun's revolutionary activities. above "democracy", there is a hor izontal inscription board w ith sun's handw riting on it, "fill the w orld w ith justice".

please follow me into the memorial hall. the floor is covered w ith w hite and black marble from yunnan province. the colors of w hite and black are among the traditional color for burial ceremonies in china. there are 12 black stone columns, w ith 0.8 meter as the diameter for each. you w ill see that the interiors of the w alls around are inset w ith black marble. now you can have a look at mr. sun yat-sen's handw riting of "programme for founding a state", engraved on the east and w est w alls. the main colors of the hall ar e black, w hite and blue, which are used to express filial piety in china. the inside w indows are inlaid w ith smaltos. they present w estern flavors especially w ith floods of sunshine. the style of the w hole structure is a blend of the east and the w est, representing the w ell blended doctrine of dr. sun yat-sen.

in the middle is the sitting statue of dr. sun yat-sen in a robe. it is 4.6 meters high and the bottom is 2.1 meters w ide. it w as sculpted by the famous french sculptor paul ar insky w hose native country is poland. he w as entrusted by the committee of dr. sun yat-sen's funeral for sculpting it. he chose the italian marble as the

mater ial for the statue. in 1930, the sculpture w as sent to the mausoleum from paris. its total cost w as 1.5 million francs. the s ic relief below are pictures depicting mr. sun's life and revolutionary activities.

passing through the hall, w e have come to the coffin chamber. there are tw o doors that you need to get through. the outer door consists of tw o american-made safety door leafs w hich are made of copper. the nails on them and the mysterious beasts on the copper loops are typical of traditional chinese. the hor izontal inscription board w as engraved w ith "the noble spirit w ill never perish " w hich w as sun's handw riting for the 72 martyrs' tomb in harangue mound of guangzhou .the second door is a single copper leaf engrave w ith seven characters "mr. sun yat-sen's tomb" w hich w ere written by zhang jing jiang.

the tomb is a half globe in shape. the design of kmt emblem is mosaic ked in the vaulted dome. the floor of the round room is covered w ith marble. the room's diameter is 18 meters and the height is 11 meters .the w alls are covered w ith pink marbles. the circular marble pit is 1.7 meters deep and 4.35 meters in diameter. it is enclose w ith 1-meter-high w hite marble rails. in the pit lays dr. sun yat-sen lying statue in zhongshan suit. this is sculpted in accordance to mr. sun's remains by a czechoslovakian sculptor. his copper coffin is lying about 5 meters below the sculptur e. you may ask w hy on earth the clothes dr. w ears for the sitting statue are totally different from those for the lying one? in those years, the leftists and the ri ghtists inside of the kmt had severe

conflicts. the rightists, headed by chang kai-shek w anted to restore the anc ient w ays and opposed revolution. they ins isted that mr. sun should w ear long robe, w hile the leftists insisted he w ear zhongshan suit. since they had different opinions thus the tw o statues have different clothes styles.

my friends, i'm afraid you must be concern about w hether mr. sun remains are in the tomb or not. in fact, his remains had a unusual exper ience. after his death, his remain w ere dealt w ith antiseptic and placed in biyun monastery in beijing in march, 1925. w hen the w arlord zhang zong chang w as defeated by the north expeditionary ar my and w ithdrew to beijing in 1926, he ascribed his failure to mr. sun's remains and decided to burn them .it is the patriotic general zhang xuelian w ho sent troops to pr otect the remains. unfortunately they were once exposed to the air though they w ere safe again. on may 28, 1929, mr. sun's coffin w as sent to pukou from beijing by jinpu railw ay, and on june 1 it r eached the mausoleum. after the grand ceremony of feng'an, the coffin and the remains w ere put into the pit and used cement to concrete it .the bottom of the tomb is gr anite. under the copper coffin, there is a spec ially made w ooden pad and enclos ing the coffin is a w ell-sealed crystal box. after the breakout of the resistance w ar against japan, kmt government planed to transport the remains to chongqing and at the end of the liberation w ar, chang kai-shek planed to transport it to taiw an this time. because it w as not an easy job to take the coffin out and the w ork might do damage to the remains as w ell, this plan w as fiercely attacked by the engineer ing field and the left w ing of the kmt. at last chang gave up the plan. so the remains have stayed her e safely up to today.

passing through the door in the bac k w all of the squar e outs ide you w ill arrive at the mausoleum par k. the back w all of the park is an "exhibition of construction of dr. sun yat-sen's mausoleum ". the exhibition contains nearly 200 prec ious historic mater ials w hich show the construction of the mausoleum and the process of the transportation of mr. sun's remains.

beside the main structure, ther e are also some constructions around the mausoleum built in memory of mr. sun. most of the constructions are built after 1929 w ith the donation of those from both all trades in china and overseas chinese. the fraternity pav ilion on top of the plum hill is built w ith the donation of a taiw anese compatriot. it w as completed on november 12,1993, the 127th anniversary of mr. sun's birthday.

ladies and gentlemen, mr. sun struggled for a better china for his w hole life and overthr ew monarch feudalist system w hich lasted for more than 2000 years. he carried out the three principal polic ies of "making an alliance w ith russia and the communist party of china and helping the farmers and w orkers" in his later days. the great feat mr. sun has achieved has gained great respect and praise from people from both home and abroad. after liberation, both central and local governments have exerted great efforts in preserving this excellent heritage.

now, as one of the "top forty tour ist resorts in china" dr. sun yat-sen mausoleum receives numerous chinese and international friends every years. peop le come here to pay homage to mr. sun. today, the unification has become the main tendency in ter ms of the relations betw een the chinese on both s ides of the straits. i believe that most chinese people, from both home and abroad, are expecting from the bottom of heart the coming of the day w hen our country is united and getting more prosperous. at that time, w hen hearing this. dr. sun w ould smile and be satisfied for sure in the other w orld. ok, thank you very much for your cooperation. good-bye and good luc k!