ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to penglai. my name is miao meng. i am very pleased to be at your service as a tour guide today. the first sight we are going to visit today is penglai pavilion, which is one of the four most famous pavilions in china, and it is the symbol of the city. before our sight-seeing, i’d like to tell you something about the city.
situated on the north coast of shandong peninsula, penglai is a famous tourist city in china. it has been know as a fairyland since ancient time. why is it called “fairyland”? there may be three reasons. one is from the literature documents. many ancient books recorded that there were three supernatural mountains in the sea to the east of china. these three supernatural mountains were described as penglai, fangzhang and yingzhou. they were all inhabited by immortals, and there were wonder herbs on the mountains. so many noted figures in history came here to seek immortality and visited places of interest. emperor wudi of the han dynasty came here several times. of course he couldn’t find the supernatural mountains. however, he ordered to name this small city penglai.
the second reason is related to the well-known legend, “eight immortals crossing the sea”. it is said that the eight immortals got drunk at penglai pavilion and crossed the sea with different tricks without ship or boats. this legend is so popular in china that it becomes a common saying, “ like the eight immortals crossing the sea, each one showing his or her special feats.” in a moment, we’ll pay a visit to the eight immortals.
the third reason has something to do with a natural phenomenon. during spring and summer, mirages sometimes appear above the sea nearby penglai. when this happens, various strange pavilions, terraces, houses and pedestrians seem to appear in the sky above the sea surface. they are now visible, now hidden, very mysterious. many visitors come to view these natural tricks of light reflection every year. and wish today we had the luck to view these natural wonders.
well, ladies and gentlemen, perhaps you can’t wait. let’s quickly enter the fairyland and have a close look.
speaking of penglai pavilion, in fact, it includes a vast group of ancient buildings on a land area of 18,900 square meters, composed of six buildings and their attached constructions, including penglai pavilion, tianhou palace, longwang palace, luzu palace and mituo temple.
now, in front of us is the magnificent archway which has the name of ‘丹崖仙境’, they mean red hill and fairyland. these four chinese characters were written by the vice-chairman dong biwu when he came here in 1964. passing the gate, we’re really in fairyland now. how do you feel everybody? would you like to have your pictures taken here?
after that archway, we now see three gates from west to east. now please enter the first gate which is to longwang palace. now we can see in the middle sits longwang or the dragon king, with his eight followers standing by on both sides. it was said that the dragon king was in charge of rain and has the power to control the sea. so every year many people came here to send tribute to him to pray for safety and harvesting fishery on the sea. and when there was a drought, the county magistrate, taking his people along with him, came here to worship the dragon king and ask him to be merciful to make some rain. at first, many people came to worship the dragon king, but eventually, another new sea goddness took the place of him. that was the goddness enshrined in tianhou palace. shall we go and visit her?
now ladies and gentlemen, we’re in the front courtyard of tianhou palace. here is an opera house where performances are made every year during the temple fair. it is said that january 16th on chinese lunar calendar is the birthday of tianhou. people in penglai have long enjoyed the custom of gathering for the temple fair on this day. coming from all directions to tianhou palace, they burn joss sticks to worship the sea godness, to pray and draw divination sticks, or to donate money for peace and happiness. farmers from nearby countryside organize operas and yange, a popular rural folk dance here for performance on the stage of the opera house or on the square in front of the pavilion. this is the occasion when huge crowd of people gathers for fun and entertainment.
ok, everybody. after seeing the opera house, let’s enter the main palace. it was first built in 1122 in the song dynasty, and rebuilt in 1837 after being burnt. it is said that tianhou is a goddness who was in charge of the sea. people that live in the seaside areas, including the people of taiwan, are all pious followers of her. here in penglai she is called sea goddness, but in her hometown, fujian province, she’s affectionately called “mazu”. the real name of tianhou was linmo, and she was born at maizhou, fujian province in 960 in the northern song dynasty, and died at the age of 28. it was said that she was unusual when she was young, and she became godness after death. she always helped people who were in danger on the sea, so she was praised by people and was conferred the title of tianhou by emperors kongxi and qianlong in the qing dynasty.
now in front of us is a two-story wooden pavilion. yes, this is the very famous penglai pavilion. it was first built in 1061 and has been rebuilt many times during the ming and qing dynasties. it is one of the four famous pavilions in china. that three chinese characters are “蓬莱阁”, they were written by the famous calligrapher tiebao of the qing dynasty, and you’ll have a chance to have a look at his other works inside the pavilion in a moment. let’s go in. look at those statue figures, who are they? can you guess? yes, they’re the well-known eight immortals. they’re now sitting at a square table drinking. that square table is called “baxianzhuo” in chinese. maybe they have been here drinking for decades.
now let’s go upstairs and enjoy the beautiful scenery here. what a view! the sea’s wide and blue, dotted with several sailing boats and some green islands. that hill in the west is called tianheng hill, it is the start of the south end for the division line between the huanghai sea and the bohai sea. on the hill there is a newly built culture park which is beautiful and well-known. and look here, this is the famous penglai water city which we’re gonna pay a visit this afternoon.
out of the pavilion, let’s move this way. now here is the luzu temple, and next to it is sanqing temple. they’re all daoism temples.
well everybody, we have been on sight-seeing for more than two hours, and we have visited the famous penglai pavilion, longwang temple, tianhou palace, luzu temple and sanqing temple. it is time for lunch now, and we’ll go on after the lunch break. thank you for your cooperation.
