good morning! ladies and gentlemen! today, with such great joy, on behalf of anhui travel agency. i’d like to extend our warm welcome to all of you, our distinguished guest from the other side of the pacific. please allow me to introduce myself. my name is li xin and i work for anhui travel agency .during your short stay in jiuhuashan, i’ll be your local guide. it’s my honor to be of your service. if you have any request, go ahead! i’ll try my best to help you and make your stay comfortable!
it’s my honor to be of your service. if you have any special interest, please let me know, and i highly appreciate your understanding and cooperation.
ok, now we are heading for mt.jiuhua, which is known as one of the four buddhist mountains in china. it’s about 30 minutes’ bus ride. on the way you can enjoy the beautiful scenery and i’d like to give you a brief introduction about mt.jiuhua.
mt.jiuhua was originally known as jiuzi (nine-peak) mount. li bai, a famous chinese poet over 1300 years ago wrote of the mountain: ”sailing on the yangtze river, watching mt.jiuhua from after, green water falls from the sky, nine lotuses appear in the air.” this expresses the poet’s great admiration for mt.jiuhua. from then on, the mountain was renamed as mt.jiuhua.
mt.jiuhua covers more than 100 square kilometers in area, which has been known to have 99 peaks, and the main peak of the shiwang peak is 1342m above sea level. mt.jiuhua is full of waterfalls, streams, exotic-looking boulders, ancient caves, old pines and exuberant bamboo. with the richly variegated landscape, the ancient temples are tucked away amid the dense woods and the air reverberates with the tolling of the bells at dawn and dusk. mt.jiuhua is usually known as the no.1 mountain of the southeast.
ok, i have said too much about the mt.jiuhua, and i expect you have got a general idea about it. seeing is beliving. i’m sure you will learn a lot about chinese culture and buddhism after the visit, and you will also be impressed deeply by the wonderful scenery. let’s get off the bus and bring your camera. i’ll show you around the scenic areas.
look! so many monks, why? yes, that’s it! because mt.jiuhua is a buddhist mountain. especially on july 30th of chinese lunar is the birthday of earch buddha, and a great buddhist ceremony is held on this day. around that day every year, the mountain is the site of a temple fair. a large number of monks, nuns, pilgrims and visitors come to burn incense, chant and sacrifice food. the activities of each year are different. though today is not the festival, we can also enjoy the beautiful scenery. they are: sunrise at tiantai platform, evening bell of huacheng temple, sitting on east stone with pleasure, fairy mark of tianzhu, taoyan waterfall, clouds around lotus peak and phoenix pine.
ok, here we are, this is huacheng temple of jiuhua street. it was the first and oldest of all the temples of mt.jiuhua. over 1500 years ago, monk beidu built a simple temple here. then after 300 years it was reconstructed and named huacheng temple.
you see it lies a round plaza. look at the center! what do you see? yeah! it is a crescent shaped lotus pond named “crescent moon pond” you can go towards it, what do you see? it is believed that monk jin qiaojue used to free captive fish. ok, now i say some brief introduction about it and then you can go around it. we’ll gather here after one hour, ok? the temple consists of four parts: the lobby, the grand hall, the back hall and the scripture tower. the ground slopes up with each part and the whole layout is natural. the doors, windows, brackets, beams, columns, steps and the cornerstone are carved with exquisite designs. in the hall are preserved horizontal boards inscribed by emperor in ancient time.
ok! is everyone here? 1, 2, 3… ok, now, let’s go to see the phoenix pine, in minyuan scenic area. phoenix pine is over 1400 years old, and is one of the four decorative trees in anhui province.
after seeing phoenix pine, we’ll finish our travel, and on behalf of my company, my chinese colleagues and myself, i’d like to take this opportunity to express my thanks for your consideration, understanding, tolerance and cooperation.