Unit two On the way to the Hotel

Background and Direction

Dialogue 1: On the Way to the Hotel (1)

Dialogue 2: On the Way to the Hotel (2)

Reading: Wuhan International Exhibition Center

Exercises

Supplementary Reading: Mount Huangshan

Background and Direction

Conducting a tour, from the airport (railway station) to the city proper is a prime lime for tour guides to make an indelible impression on tourists. Tour guides at that time should introduce the main buildings, attractions, scenes and views along the way. They can also intersperse the tour narration with comments on the local history, geography, population, areas, climate, culture, customs, cuisine and so on. When approaching the hotel where guests are to stay, they should mention the name of the hotel, class, location and any other distinctive features. They ought to introduce views in sight, mention the tourist attractions in the vicinity, and be brief and concise. Because the bus travels at a fairly rapid speed, some of the scenes or places of historical interest flash by, tour guides should try to avoid

introducing and explaining anything that the guests cannot see.

Since visitors are usually strangers, this being their first time in the city, everything seems to be fresh, new and interesting to them. Therefore, when conducting such a tour, guides should get ready to answer any questions that visitors may bring up. Concise and informative answers are the most appreciated.

Dialogue 1: On the Way to the Hotel (1)

A: tourist B: guide

(Liu Yin, the guide, is taking the tour group from the airport to the hotel. The coach is about to start. )

B: (counting the tourists) Is everybody on the bus?

A: Yes, I think so.

B: Shall we go now?

A:Yes, please.

B: (to all the tourists in the coach) Welcome to China, ladies and gentlemen. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Liu Yin; I'm a guide from Hubei China Travel Service. I'm glad to have all of you here. I'll be with you in the following 5 days of the tour. I expect after such a long trip you d like a good rest.

So we are driving straight to the hotel, White Rose Hotel.

A: Well, how fat is it?

B: It 11 take us about 40 minutes. It s one of the best four-star hotels in the city. Service is warm and efficient there, with extensive leisure facilities. I hope you'll have a good time there.

A: That’s great.

B: As we go, you may have a glimpse of the outskirts and the city along the way. Wuhan is a pleasant place to visit as well as to do business, to shop, to dine, or to be entertained. It is located on the longest river in China — the Yangtze River. The city looks back on a history of more than 3,500 years with attractions such as the Yellow Crane Tower and the beautiful East Lake scenery. Today, Wuhan enjoys a sound industrial base and is the economic and cultural centre of Hubei Province.

A: Look, there is a bridge over there.

B: Please look straight ahead, this is Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, Wuchang and Hanyang are linked by this great bridge, it' s over 1,100 metres long and 80 metres high. A second Trans-Yangtze bridge in northern Wuhan was completed in mid-1995.

A: That tower looks magnificent.

B: That s the famous Yellow Crane Tower, it s the most famous one among the three well-known towers in south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Now we are in the culture center of the city, Wuchang district. There are many universities in this area. Look, that big square is Hongshan Square, it's an open large-scale green city square, which has an area of 108,000 square meters. Can you see the tall building over there, that's White Rose Hotel. Here we are at the hotel.

Dialogue 2: On the Way to the Hotel\" (2)

A: Mr. Robinson B. Mrs. Robinson C. Guide

(On their way to the hotel, Mr. and Mrs. Robinson are talking with their guide about their trip to Suzhou.)

A: This is our first trip to Suzhou. Would you please tell us something about the

city?

C: Certainly. Suzhou is a city of great beauty. It is called Venice of the East.

A: Why is it called like this?

C: Because of its network of canals, a proverb says that “In heaven there is paradise; on earth, Suzhou and Hangzhou\". The Humble Administrator's Garden is the largest in the city. It is famous for its ponds. Homes and Gardens line the canals,

which are spanned by ancient stone bridges. Most pavilions and halls are built on the edge of the water and arranged at random. The entire garden looks as if it's floating on water just like Venice.

B: That's wonderful. Could you tell us what to see in this city?

C: With pleasure, Mr. and Mrs. Robinson. Suzhou is world-famous especially for its landscaped gardens. There are about 150 gardens in Suzhou. Some of them are more than 1, 000 years old. These gardens are not large but exquisitely laid out, and they ingeniously combine the beauties of nature, architecture and painting. Besides, some other scenic spots visited often by foreign guests are Tiger Hill, the Hanshan Temple, Fengqiao Bridge, the North Temple Pagoda, Lake Taihu, the Residence of King Zhong and the West Garden.

A: We'd like to take a one-day sightseeing tour around the city. What would you advise us to see here?

C: Fine, I can recommend you a popular plan. You visit the Humble Administrator's Garden and Lion Grove in the morning. Right after that, the tour makes a stop at the Hanshan Temple, then the rest of the afternoon is spent at Tiger Hill.

A: How long does the tour take?

C: About eight hours. The bus starts at 8:30 in the morning, and we will be

back at 4: 30 m the afternoon.

B: That's great. We'll always follow your suggestions.

C: Thank you. I hope you'll enjoy your stay in Suzhou.

Reading: Wuhan International Exhibition Center

Wuhan International Exhibition Center, derived from Wuhan Exhibition Hall which was built in 1956 as Sino-Soviet Friendship Palace, was the fourth large-scale comprehensive exhibition hall after liberation. With the development of market economy, its former function cannot fully meet the requirements of the modern exhibition any more, so local government rebuilt it in 1999 and now it has become a modern, professional international exhibition hall of international standard.

It lies in Hankou commercial center and its land price is very expensive. It covers an area of 127,000 square metres. It has seven floors among which two floors are underground. Exhibition hall doesn't need one pillar by using a kind of bridge construction technology. The hall is gracious and splendid, showing the characteristics of advanced technology.

The International Exhibition Center has ten halls and 2,800 international showrooms, which is designed according to international practice. By using lots of comprehensive wire setting, strong power, weak power, communication, internet,

water-supply system, and compressed air can be transferred directly to every showroom through pipes underground. The whole center houses 40 meeting halls with different types and scales, among which the biggest meeting hall is set with advanced video frequency system, multimedia display system, foreign languages simultaneous interpretation system and satellite communications system.

Wuhan International Exhibition Center Square is broad and beautiful, which lined with all kinds of [lowers, grasses and trees, on which each of two four-side buildings consists of modern sculpture of pyramid that is made up of 364 toughened glass, shining with its main body. Wonderful music spring light system on stage can supply places for citizen s amusement and for large-scale activities. Wuhan International Exhibition Center is the symbolized building of Wuhan as well as the center of politics, economics, culture, science, commercial activities and information communication.

▲Useful expressions

on the edge of 在……边缘

at random 随便地

Exercises

I. Special terms

a. Put the following into English

1.自然保护区 2.水上公园

3.风景点 4.民俗风情

5.人造古迹 6.国际杂技节

7.名胜古迹 8.黄鹤楼

9.鱼米之乡 10.建筑技术

b. Put the following into Chinese

1. market economy 2. subtropical monsoon humid climate

3. living fossil 4. hydroelectric resource

5. world cultural heritage 6. potted-landscape garden

7. beach hotel 8. music spring relaxation square

9. nine-province thoroughfare 10. ancient tablet corridor

II. Complete the following dialogues

Li Ming, a local guide, is taking the tourist group from the airport to the hotel. The coach is about to start. (L: Li Ming

B: Mr. Bellow, the group s tour escort)

L: Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please? ________. I'm from Hubei overseas travel agency. Welcome to Wuhan. I wish ___ ___________. Now we are driving straight to the hotel.

B: _______________?

L: The Hongshan Hotel. B: I've heard it's a good one.

L: Quite a way. _________________________________.

B: Well, _________________________?

L: It’ll take us about fifty minutes. As we go, ________________.

B: What's this bridge called?

L: It's the world-famous Yangtze Bridge. _____________________.

B: It' 11 take about five minutes to arrive the hotel. _______________.

III. Cloze

Yellow Crane Tower is our famous historical s _______, which lies i ______ the south shore of Yangtze River, on the top of Snake Hill. It was built in 223 B.C. for the first time, but it has been d _____ for many times. It was r _____ in 1981 and it was open to people in June, 1985.

Nowadays, the tower is an i _____ of the ancient tower in Qing Dynasty, which was built with modern and art type. The a ______ tower was built w _____ wood, which was e ______ to set on fire and actually destroyed by fire f ____' several times. Now, it' s an i ______ of wood, which is built with reinforced concrete.

IV. Translate the following sentences into English

1.武汉市是湖北省省会，中国六大城市之一，中国中部地区工业、金融、商业、科学、文化、教育的中心，是集铁路、水路、公路、航空和邮政于一体的重要枢纽。

2.武汉交通便利在中国历史上早负盛名，自古以来就有“九省通衢”的美誉。

3.屹立于蛇山之巅的黄鹤楼高耸入云，成为武汉市的象征，是中外游客向往的地方。

4.位于武昌东湖西岸的湖北省博物馆，收藏有曾侯乙编钟、越王勾践剑、吴王夫差矛等各种稀世珍品。

5.江汉路步行街商业街是武汉最繁华的商业区之一，类似于北京的“王府井”和上海的“南京路”。在不宽的街道两旁，鳞次栉比地排列着各种商店、专卖店、快餐店和银行、影楼等。

V. Put the following into Chinese

Passage one

Hongshan Square was built in 1991. The rebuilt Hongshan Square, surrounded by big trees and green grass, becomes an open large-scale green city square whose area has 108,000 square meters and the center area has 60,000 square meters. As a brilliant pearl decorated in the center of Hongshan Square, the round square is arranged with three big scenic spots from east to west: Dong Biwu Memory Square, Descending Culture Plaza and Music Spring Relaxation Square. In the Dong Biwu Memory Square, there is a bronze statue of Dong Biwu who was former vice-president of the People's Republic of China. When we arrive at the descending culture plaza, a big fire phoenix comes first into our eyes, our ancestor people of Chu regarded phoenix as their totem, it can fully show Jin Chu People' s courageous spirit, in the Music Spring Relaxation Square, you can see water go up and down accompanied with music.

Hongshan Square, which can supply people sufficient place for their relaxation, sports, sightseeing, becomes a brilliant pearl decorated in this river city by its novel design and strong culture atmosphere.

Passage two

As we all known, Wuhan is a city with hundreds of lakes and rivers. Bridge becomes naturally one of the most important symbols of the city, offering us an

important passage of connecting the three boroughs of Wuhan. It is a very special scene in Wuhan.

Wuhan Yangtze Bridge is the first bridge of 10,000 li, connecting Tortoise Hill and Snake Hill from Wuchang to Hankou, like a large dragon flying on the Yangtze River. Its construction project formally started in September 1955 and accomplished on October 14th, 1957. The bridge is 1670.4 metres long. It has two floors, one is the bus passage, which is 22. 5 metres wide, and the other one is railway passage, which has two rails. The distance between the bridge and water surface is 18 metres, so 10,000-ton ships can run across below the bridge. In the past ten years, local government has built bridges including the second bridge on Yangtze River in 1996 and Yangtze River Bai Shazbou Bridge and so on. These bridges will greatly fasten economic development of Wuhan and other cities.

Supplementary Reading: Mount Huang

Pre-reading Questions:

1. Compared with the other famous mountains in China, what is special about Mount Huang'?

2. What are the four beauties of Mount Huang? What are they good fort

Mount Huang covers an area of 154 square kilometres in the southeast part of Anhui Province. Over the years visitors from at home and abroad have been

arriving there to marvel at its peaks, which are magnificent, statuesque and elegant. The towering and odd-looking rock, the green pine trees with gnarled branches and suggestive gestures, and the ever-changing ocean of clouds are the three \"wonders\" of Mount Huang. \"Alter visiting the five holy mountains I decided not to see the other mountains,\" says a Ming-dynasty poet, \"but after my return from Mount Huang I don't care even to glance at the five holy mountains. \" Another saying goes, \"Whoever has journeyed to the five holy mountains will never fail to feel captivated at the mere sight of the Tiandu Peak. \" Mount Tai is known for its magnificence, Mount Hua its precipitousness, Mount Heng its ethereal mass of mists and clouds. Mount Lu its flying cataracts, Mount Yandang its statuesque rocks. Mount Emei its soothing coolness, but Mount Huang is in the possession of all these salient features. The seventy-two peaks of Mount Huang look as if they came into shape by cutting into the depth of the earth and elevating the land to such heights where even the clouds cease to flow. Each peak is a masterpiece of the cunning labour of nature' s chiseling force, but the visitor has to pluck up the courage and mount some of them to get some idea about this. The State Council designated Mount Huang as a key national scenic resort in 1982. In 1990, Mount Huang found its way into a UNESCO list of world cultural and natural heritages.

Mount Huang is an immense ocean of soaring peaks. For Guo Moruo, a celebrated contemporary Chinese writer, the peaks were among the most spectacular of Huangshan's \"three wonders\". In a 1964 poem he wrote like this: \"Although a popular saying has it that there are seventy-two exotic peaks of varying sizes, as a matter of fact there are seven hundred and twenty thousand

ones of equal appeals. Within a circumference of eight hundred li the land is taken over by a sea of peaks, which are surrounded by an ocean of floating clouds. The kaleidoscopic view of this part of the world is incomparable anywhere in this world, and even if the visitor makes the attempt to make a comparison, he is simply wasting his breath. In a hundred and one ways, the scenery changes in the twinkling of an eye, now appearing, now disappearing, looking now dark, now light in a dreamlike fashion.

The entire Huangshan Mountain Range starts from Mount Jiuhua in Qingyang County, extends east to the Dafeng Mountain in Jixi County, west to the Yangzhan Mountain in Yitai, and southeast to the Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang Province. Within a circumference of several hundred kilometers the land is strewn with innumerous mountain peaks and crisscrossed by a myriad ravines and glens. Sixteen major peaks stand towering over this topographical turmoil while thirty-six smaller ones look uniquely picturesque and add a touch of grace and elegance to the landscape.

Looking northwest from the highway on the outskirts of Huicheng, the first thing that meets the eye is the Yunmen Peak, where flying birds dare not fly over and floating cloud, hesitate as to where to go. But if you have mounted the Yuping Tower, nicknamed \"Human World in Heaven\not steep at all. A look around you from the summit of the Yuping Peak shows that the mountains that meet the eye all look so tiny. Peaks are linked with one plunging ravine after another, looking like surging waves in a choppy sea.

Each of the seventy-two peaks of Mount Huang has a nice name. Some of the names are derived from tales of the Yellow Emperor making pills of immortality and achieving enlightenment, such as \"Xuanyuan\\"Fuqiu, Rongcheng”, \"Shangsheng\Lianhua (Lotus Flower) Peak, the tallest peak of Mount Huang at 1, 860 metres above sea level, looks exactly a lotus flower. The Lianrui (Lotus Stamen) Peak stands picturesquely in the ocean of peaks like a budding lotus flower. The Baodao (Thin Knife) Peak has an exquisite form, with clouds piled upon its Shichuan (Stone Bed) Peak like a stack of folded quilts. Each peak name has a beautiful legend behind it. The Shixin (Beginning to Believe) Peak in the Northern Cloud Sea is not tall, but its slopes are covered with exotic rock, and pine trees, and three sides of it rise vertically to form an unfathomable abyss. The Shixin Peak also forms a trio with the Shisun (Stone Bamboo Shoot), and Shangsheng Peak, and visitors to the place never fail to be fascinated by the charms of Mount Huang.

\"Cloud, hinge on mountains, while mountains depend on clouds. \" This famous saying about Mount Huang's ocean of peak, not only defines the relationship between clouds and mountains but also points to the causes for the ever-changing landscape. If you happen to be visiting the West Sea when the sun shines again in a sky washed a fresh by the rain, you will see clouds floating like innumerous pieces of fine gauze over an ocean of mountains and ravines of immense proportions, while the Nine-Dragon Peak looks like a dragon frolicking and spitting wator a very pale blue.

During the Palaeozoic Era about 200-300 million years ago, the area of

present-day Mount Huatig was an ocean with surging waves. By the Jurassic Period of the Mesozoic Era some 143 million years ago, the area had been covered by a thick earth crust of sedimentary and metamorphic rock. During repeated stratigraphic folding and rifting caused by earth' s crustal movement, the magma surged along the earth's cracks to form a colossal body of granite that was the embryo of \"Mount Huangshan. All this happened long before the appearance of the human race, and the forests and grassland were teeming with dinosaurs and archaeopteryxes. Then violent crustal movements look place, and the massive e-mission of molten granite from the depth of the earth cooled down to form the frontal part of Mount Huang. Another 100 million years later, more molten granite surged to the surface to form the posterior part of the mountain. Numerous years of erosion of the layer of rocks, sand and dirt over the granite by wind, rain, ice, sunshine and mountain runoffs, the granite finally protruded from the ground to form the infantile Mount Huang, When the earth entered the Tertiary Period, the Himalayan mountain-making movement took place on the Chinese continent, causing the bottom of the sea in south Tibet to rise gradually to form the Roof of the World—the Himalayan Mountain. In the east, Mount Huang rose gradually, and after the crust atop the body of granite had disappeared completely, the combined force of the elements began to chisel and decorate the columnar body of granite until it finally evolved into the seventy-two lotus-shaped peaks and numerous deep ravines and gullies.

Pine trees—there are tens of thousands of them—are another spectacle nature has bestowed upon Mount Huang. The Guest-Greeting Pine, the Phoenix Pine, the Cattail Hassock Pine, and so many others stand in images that never fail

to give wings to imagination. The presence of pine trees is so ubiquitous that, as the saying goes, \"No peak is not formed by rock, and no rock is not covered by pines. \" These pine trees are mostly found at 800 - 1,750 metres above sea level, and quite a few of them protrude from the seams of sheer cliffs and perpendicular monoliths. The trees have gnarling branches that are bristled with short and thick needles, forming foliages that have a razor-cut flat top and look unusually fresh and green. They assume every imaginable posture, standing, lying, craning their necks, or looking down over the ravines, and each posture looks unbelievably enchanting. The huge ones soar to a height of a dozen metres, while the tiny ones are less than a foot high. The Guest-Greeting Pine, having been there for the last thousand years as a symbol of Mount Huang and an emblem of the hospitality of the nation of China, graces the Yuping Tower with a tall and graceful foliage evocative of a hospitable host awaiting visitors with open arms. The Guest-Greeting Pine is not the only tree with a personified name. There are also the Guest's Companion Pine, Seeing-a-Friend-off Pine, Yearning-for-Guests Pine, Receptionist Pine, Sea-Surveying Pine, etc. The other trees are named by their shapes, such as the Unicorn Pine and Dragon-Claw Pines of the North Sea, the Black-Tiger Pine close by the Shixin Peak, the Phoenix Pine near the Haixin Pavilion in the Heavenly Sea, the Cat tail-Hassock Pine on the road between the Yuping Tower and the Lotus-Flower Peak. There are also the \"Magpies Mounting a Plum Tree\" Pine, and the \"Angel Playing a Zither\" Pine.

The beauty of Mount Huang pines is indeed beyond description. They evince a distinctive air of elegance and coquetry, and look like ladies of natural and poised grace, or strapping young men standing rod straight and vibrating with youthful

energy.

Having been tempered by the elements through the ages, the pines of Mount Huang have been endowed with an undying vitality that defies the beating of the rain or wind and the bullying by ice or snow. Their roots now strike deep into the depth of a stone fissure, now ingeniously bypass a monolith, now stick firmly to the chasm of a rock, and now attach themselves to rocks in stark nakedness.

Mount Huang is strewn’ with rocks hewn into innumerous vivid images and graphic shapes by nature s wonderful chiseling labour. These rocks are clustered together to form a superb picture that changes with the shift of the visitor' s feet, imparting life to the serenity of the landscape. These exotic-looking stones look like numerous pearls tossed into the ocean of peak. Some 120 of them are especially marked by shapes that are reminiscent of people, objects, animals and birds. Every stone is congruously merged with the surroundings to form a picture that never fails to draw the breath away from the spectator.

Geologists testify that the exotic rocks of Mount Huang are products of the glaciers of the Quaternary Period. Three million years ago, Mount Huang was ushered into the Quaternary Period, and the entire mountain was transformed into icicles hundreds of meters long hanging down sheer cliffs in a way similar to today' s Mount Qomolangma. Gravity caused the icicles to slide slowly down the mountain slopes to form flows of ice-glaciers. After being washed and brushed by the glaciers and weathered by the elements for millions of years, the rocks cracked or fell, and in the process gave assumed one unique image after another. These

include the \"Stone Pillar Sandwiched in Between Crimson Rocks\" , \"Overhanging Slate\" , \"Eighteen Arhats Paying Homage to Southern Sea\\"Virgin Boys Kowtowing to Goddess of Mercy\" , and \"Five Old Men Heading for Heavenly Capital\".

\"Since ancient times clouds have been converging at Mount Huang to become a sea, \"as the saying goes. The sea of clouds, however, is of a capricious temper, now looking calm and tranquil, now rolling on with full force, now tumbling furiously like so many rapid, now evoking the memory of cascading waterfalls, and now threatening with lightning and thunder. The ocean of clouds changes every minute of the day, turning Mount Huang into what looks like an \"island palace in the clouds\". The clouds of Mount Huang are converged into \"five seas”. You may marvel at the Frontal Sea at the Yuping Tower, the Posterior Sea at the Qingliang Terrace, the East Sea atop the White Goose Mountain, the West Sea in the Cloud-Dispel ling Pavilion, and the Heavenly Sea from the top of the Guangming Peak. The ocean of clouds looks in magnificent best right after the rain. When you happen to be \"walking\" in the clouds, you will feel you are in a wonderland, and if you take a look at the world below you, the scenery is of a different kind: The bottom of ravines is covered with clouds, and wisps of cloud hang down vertical cliffs, while the ocean of clouds extends as far as the eye can see. The beauty of the place is that, while you know perfectly well you are not on the sea, the surroundings give you every reason to believe it is the sea. The mountains close at hand or in the distance shimmer above the cloud like islands, while the ethereal ocean of clouds now looks calm and tranquil, now sways gently, now tumbles with such vengeance. Watching the ocean of clouds at sunrise is a most spectacular

experience.

Abundant rainfalls combine with numerous mountains and glens to give rise to tumbling waterfalls and gurgling springs in Mount Huang. Rivers and streams often cut a zigzagging course as they wind their way through the ravines and around the mountains. A waterfall tends to leap, tumble, skip and shoot by turns to form the most dynamic part of the scenery of Mount Huang. The mere mention of tumbling waterfalls brings to mind the famous poems written by the celebrated Tang-dynasty poet Li Bai. Few people, however, are aware that the waterfalls of Mount Huang are one of a kind. It rained an night long yesterday, that's why tumbling cataracts are everywhere. This line sheds some light on the magnificence of Mount Huang' s waterfalls. Poetic names are given to these waterfalls according to their sounds and shapes, such as Nine-Dragon Waterfall, Man-Shaped Waterfall, Hundred-Zhang Waterfall, Singing String Spring, Three-Section Waterfall, Iron-Line Spring, Alms Bowl Spring.

Summer is the best season for watching the flying waterfalls of Mount Huang. After a heavy rain, Mount Huang is virtually taken over by countless waterfalls and cataracts hanging down the cliffs, or winding their way around monoliths, and they look splendid in the sun. In the morning sun, or the twilight of dusk, waterfalls are seen swirling with the clouds and mists, and the emerald valley dyes the streams an equally emerald green, inspiring the feeling that one is in the midst of a wonderland.