英语导游口试--肇庆鼎湖山森林生态游

Forest Eco-tour in Zhaoqing Dinghushan

From Mountain Foot to Qingyunsi Parking Lot—from Qingyunsi Parking Lot to Temple Qingyunsi—Bird’s-eye View from Back Terrace in Temple Qingyunsi—from Temple Side Entrance to Bushan Pavilion—under Kiosk Bushanting and around—Feishuitan—from Hillside Pavilion to Parking Lot at Mountain Foot

From Mountain Foot to Qingyunsi Parking Lot

Our coach will bring us into Dinghushan. It is one of the four famous mountains in Lingnan area. The other three are Danxiashan, Luofushan and Xiqiaoshan. A long established temple called Qingyunsi stands in the mountain. In 1983, State Council issued the temple as one of the important Buddhist and Taoist temples in the areas across the country inhabited by Han people. Our trip today is not to see the temple hidden in the mountain but to explore its greenness. “Oasis on the Tropic of Cancer”is a title given to Dinghushan which brings fame to it at home and abroad.

If we open the World Map, we will find that tells us that deserts and grasslands dot on the Tropic of Cancer. Let us name a few. The Sahara Desert running across North Africa, the Arabian Desert on the Arabian Peninsula, the Thar Desert in the low reaches of Indian River, the Madelei Desert in Northwester Mexica. If we count, we will get 12 deserts or prairies from 16 countries and regions on 23 degrees 26 minutes north latitude.

The Tropic of Cancer crossed Y unnan, Guangxi, Guangdong and Taiwan. Because of the effect of the warm-humid wet southeast monsoon, these four provinces or regions have plenty of rain, taking on a natural landscape quite different from that of the dry desert areas.

The Tropic of Cancer passes across some primitive forest zones in Guangdong. Shall I list a few for you? They are Dinghushan Natural Reserve and Heishiding Forests Area in Zhaoqing; Nankunshan Forests and Gutian Chenshui Forests in Huizhou. Among them, Dinghushan, at the north latitude of 23 degrees 8 minutes, is quite outstanding. The subtropical monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest there is well preserved.

Dinghushan is just like a natural green treasury. It enjoys 1,843 kind of wild high-order plants.

23 species of rare plants and 15 species of rare animals are listed under the focal protection of the state. It is the habitat of silver pheasant, the “provincial bird” of Guangdong province. Surprisingly, with an area of 11.33 square meters only, this mountain nurtures an abundant species of living things.

Dinghushan has a low altitude. Its highest peak, called Jilong Summit, has an altitude of 1000.3 meters. And Zhaoqing city is expanded around this mountain. How can it maintain its eco-system? Isn’t it amazing?

In fact, a lot has been done. In 1956, the State Council approved to list Dinghushan as the first state-level natural reserves. In 1987, it was listed as the positioning station for forest ecosystem studies conducted by the Chinese Academy of Science. In 1979, UNESCO issued it as the positioning research station for the “Man and the Biosphere” programme. In 1982, Qinghu (or call it the Star-like Lake) including Rock Qixingyan and Dinghushan, was listed as one of the 44 state-level scenic areas by the State Council.

Dinghushan Scenic spots consist of three parts: Tianxi, Tianhu and Y unxi. We are touring between the first two today. The third has not been exploited, leaving it intact for our future generations.

From Qingyunsi Parking Lot to Temple Qingyunsi

Dear guests, do you feel the pleasant fresh and cool air? The annual average temperature in the mountain is 21 Celsius degrees. Its daily average temperature is two or four degrees lower than that of the neighboring areas. In summer time, its temperature can be five to seven degrees lower than of downtown Zhaoqing. It is an ideal summer resort.

To promote eco-learning, precious species, aged or rare trees have information boards on them. Do you have interest in recognizing different kinds of trees?

The tree I am pointing at is one of the endangered plant species listed in the second grade of protected roster in Chinese Plant Red Book. Look at the name here, it is difficult to read it: erythrophleum fordii.

Here is a community of Castanea Henryi and Chinese guger trees. These two kinds are the pioneers in the evergreen broad-leaved forests, as they are very productive and able to survive under harsh conditions. With their help, other kinds of plants grow very quickly and spread over hill and dale.

This is Calamus rhadocladus in Guangdong province.

Over the mountain are lots of lianas.

Look, the plant twining around the Caryota is called stem of manyleaf pricklyash.

The one hanging there is known as Japanese Milkwort herb…

This is a wild litchi, a second-grade State protected plant.

The tree standing in front of us is black Chinese olive, a giant in the olive family. It is over 400 years old.

As a saying goes, “Round rattans are common while flat ones are rare.” Y ou are so lucky to see a kind of flat rattan, tetrastigma planicaule, a wooden liana.

Bird’s-eye View from Back Terrace in Temple Qingyunsi

Ladies and gentlemen (pointing at the mountains in the distant northeast), we can have a bird’s eye view of the complete forests in Dinghushan. Look! Through the difference in altitude between the mountain top to the lowest valley is only 950 meters, the vertical distribution of such natural elements as microclimate, vegetation and soil is relatively distinct. The vegetation on the top is mainly the underbrush and bushes. Down the mountains are mixed coniferous broad leaved forests, evergreen broad-leaved forests, monsoonal evergreen broad-leaved forests, valley rainforests and riparian forests at the foot of the mountain. Therefore, this place is full of vigor throughout the year!

From Temple Side Entrance to Bushan Pavilion

As a proverb goes, “Monks like to live in famous mountains.” Monks prefer to live in quiet and secluded mountain forests, separated from human world, devoting themselves to practicing doctrines. Once a temple is built, they want to have increasing number of believers and followers come to pay tribute.

Monks lay great emphasis on forest protection mainly for two reasons. Subjectively, they

want to keep their temple’s fengshui, providing beautiful scenery for their pilgrims when they come to worship; objectively, their protection helps to preserve the primitive states of these forests. The signboard in front of the side door to Temple Qingyunsi was placed by the second ancestor of the temple during Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty. He announced that villagers down the mountain should not cut trees with any excuses. Written on the signboard is “all the offenders will be punished”.

Official in the feudal society had learned about the significance of famous mountains and historic temples to the local reputation as well. Through official intervention, they stood on the side of monks in the matter of protecting the forests near the temple.

The stele close to us was set up during the period of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty. Inscribed on it is the arbitrament of the ownership of the forest near the temple. It declares that villagers and local landlords are not allowed to cut down trees. V iolations of the arbitrament must be looked into and punished without delay.

Zhaoqing Tourism Committee took history as a mirror. In 1995, they spent 25 million RMB to set up a total of 99 mere stones in Xinghu scenic area. They had Qixingyan state-owned land use permits issued. These two actions take the lead in the state-level scenic areas. The two measures have solved the fundamental problem of protecting tourist resources and ecological environment.

This is an aged star fruit tree. One feature of this kind of plants in that its trucks or branches blossom and bear fruits. Other trees of this kind grow in Dinghushan. They are ficus fistulosa, saurauisa and ficus septic.

We are entering valley rainforests. These two kinds of trees (ficus nervosa and litchi) have something in common. Four to six spreading side roots grow next to their stem. They seem to form a wooden wall to support firmly their massive body. This is the ecological feature of buttress-like root in tropical rainforests.

Under Kiosk Bushanting and around

The scientific name of this tree is jequirity. Xiangsidou (loving each other) is its popular name in China.

Three Marriage is the name given to these two trees. The origin of its nickname goes like this. The outmost layer of ceiba and longan were wounded and healed. They grew into one tree like this.

This buckthorn plant is called pawpaw. Its flesh could be very tender and tasty if well steamed. Beverage made of it can beautify countenance and slow down aging.

The trees we look at closely here are Xiangsidou, tree marriage and pawpaw. They convey us a message. “Love-marriage-lifelong companionship” is woven into a trilogy of life.

Please look at the big banyan which grows horizontally. We can find many parasitical plants in it. A major ecological feature of the tropical rain forest is attached plants and parasitical plants. Its pendulous clinging root stretches to other plants and holds tight its host, sucking its nutrition, and finally strangles it to death. Strangling is a phenomenon of phyto-ecology. This can be seen in leaflet banyans and many woody climbers. They strangle their hosts in order to survice.

Dinghushan is covered with lush forests. It is very quiet with the sound intensity below 45 decibels. Scientific research has proved that a 40-meter-wide forest belt can reduce noise by 15-20 decibels.

Feishuitan

There are countless streams and waterfalls in Dinghushan. The quality of the water in Feishuitan meets the national top standard. Dr. Sun Y at-sen used to swim here.

Ladies and gentlemen, the woods not only purify the air and produce oxygen, but also give out fragrant terpenoid gaseous substances that are good for health. Anions are unceasingly produced by the electrostatic effect. This effect is caused by ultraviolet rays and some physical effect. The anions here are up to 105,600.

From Hillside Pavilion to Parking Lot at Mountain Foot

It was the heyday for ferns and dinosaurs 300 million years age. A huge number of floras and faunas died out because of the glacier catastrophe in the fourth century. Alsophila spinulosa, a kind of fern in the family of wood plants, survived miraculously. It can grow up to seven to eight meters high and earn the name “living fossils”. The black alsophila spinulosa is the first-grade state protected plant. Y ou can see one near the path. It was moved here on purpose for tourists.

By the side of the stream at the mountain foot stand “Stream bank woods”. Arbor sector consists of mainly water wood and water grapes. Besides, duck foot woods, sterculia lanceolata cavs, and Guangdong machilus can also be found here.

Tranquil hills, green woods, clean water, fresh air and charming scenery are the phrases used to describe our eco-tour in Dinghushan, I should say, if you forgot most of the tree names I mentioned today.

Forests play a positive role in keeping global ecosystems, it is universally acknowledged nowadays. Local people here are really lucky to have it.

So much for my presentation today. Thank you.