Last month I went to Beijing to visit one of my friends, because we haven’t seen each other for about two years and I got a holiday meanwhile. It is my first time to visit Beijing, which is always the dream city for all the Chinese. All the information about the city came from the books and TV, now I could see and get know of it by myself, how excited I am!

上个月我去北京看望我的一个朋友，因为我们有将近两年没见，而我刚好有假期。这是我第一次游览北京，这座全中国人都向往的城市。我对北京的所以认知都来自电视和书本，而现在我有机会亲自来看这个城市、来了解她。我多么地兴奋！

There were so many tourist areas in my plan list, like Tian’anmen Square, Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Perking University and so on. However, due to my short holiday I only visit several places of my list, with my friend’s companion. I will take a long tour to Beijing next time if I have the chance.

在我的旅游计划表上，我罗列许多要去的地方，如天安门广场，紫禁城，长城，北京大学等等。然而由于假期太短，朋友只陪我参观了计划表上的几个地方而已。如果有机会，我下次一定会到这来个长期旅游。

What strikes one first in a bird's -eye view of Beijing proper is a vast tract of golden roofs flashing brilliantly in the sun with purple walls occasionally emerging amid them and a stretch of luxuriant tree leaves flanking on each side. That is the former Imperial Palace, popularly known as the Forbidden City, from which twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties ruled China for some 500 years——from1420 to 1911. The Ming Emperor Yong Le, who usurped the throne from his nephew and made Beijing the capital, ordered its construction, on which approximately 10,000 artists and a million workmen toiled for 14 years from 1406 to 1420. At present, the Palace is an elaborate museum that presents the largest and most complete ensemble of traditional architecture complex and more than 900,000 pieces of court treasures in all dynasties in China. Located in the center of Beijing, the entire palace area, rectangular in shape and 72 hectares in size, is surrounded by walls ten meters high and a moat 52 meters wide. At each corner of the wall stands a watchtower with a double-eave roof covered with yellow glazed tiles. The main buildings, the six great halls, one following the other, are set facing south along the central north-south axis from the Meridian Gate, the south entrance, to Shenwumen, the great gate piercing in the north wall. On either side of the palace are many comparatively **all buildings. Symmetrically in the northeastern section lie the six Eastern Palaces and in the northwestern section the six Western Palaces. The Palace area is divided into two parts: the Outer Court and the Inner Palace. The former consists of the first three main halls, where the emperor received his courtiers and conducted grand ceremonies, while the latter was the living quarters for the imperial residence. At the rear of the Inner Palace is the Imperial Garden where the emperor and his family sought recreation. The main entrance to the Palace is the Meridian Gate(1), which was so named because the emperor considered himself the "Son of the Heaven" and the Palace the center of the universe, hence the north-south axis as the Meridian line going right through the Palace. The gate is crowned with five towers, commonly known as the Five-Phoenix Towers(2), which were installed with drums and bells. When the emperor went to the Temple of Heaven, bells were struck to mark this important occasion. When he went to the Ancestral Temple, it was the drums that were beaten to publicize the event.

Beyond the Meridian Gate unfolds a vast courtyard across which the Inner Golden Water River runs from east to west. The river is spanned by five bridges, which were supposed to be symbols of the five virtues preached by Confucius——benevolence, righteousness, rites, intelligence, and fidelity(3).

At the north end of the courtyard is a three-tiered white marble terrace, seven meters above the ground, on which, one after another, stand three majestic halls; the Hall of Supreme Harmony(4), the Hall of Complete Harmony(5), and the Hall of Preserving Harmony

Notes:

1. the Meridian Gate 午门

2. the Five-Phoenix Towers 五凤楼

3. benevolence, righteousness, rites, intelligence, and fidelity 仁、义、礼、智、信

4. the Hall of Supreme Harmony 太和殿

5. the Hall of Complete Harmony 中和殿

6. the Hall of Preserving Harmony 保和殿

7. the Palace of Heavenly Purity 乾清宫

8. the Hall of Union 交泰殿

9. the Palace of Earthly Tranquility 坤宁宫

这是故宫的英文解说