2015-08-20

【Aiden in English】

        Nothing can last forever on earth, so that is why people remodel or reconstruct historical sites. They want to make them last longer. And in a place of 5,000-year-old history, it tends to happen a ton.

        Right next to my uncle’s home in Fengtai District was a public domain called Beijing Garden Expo Park. It’s a small park that is filled with abundant trees and flowers in blooming. Amongst the nature is the octagonal Yongding Tower architecture in Liao-Jin Dynastic style. Towers were also important to the Chinese culture. Not only did it act as a worshipping temple, but also as a building that brought people close to the heaven. Okay, being in a tower means you’ve closer to the sky than the people on the ground, which becomes more of a cultural reason. This tower has mine floors/levels. The number “9” is special since it is the largest single digit. That number was meant for the greatest of people like an emperor in the ancient China. So if a tower had nine floors, it was extremely high and brought worshippers closer to the sky.

        Unfortunately, this wooden tower was closed due to remodeling. According to my uncle, the tower had once caught on fire in 2013 since it was built out of date. The exterior reconstruction was done long ago, but the interior was under heavy restoration. The sad event didn’t fit the beautiful scenery including Yongding Court, Wenyuan Pavilion, Lotus Stone Lake, etc. as it promoted "the garden boutique of world cities and the charming project practicing ". That left the museum which the park offered to the ticket holders. 

        Beijing is a really, really, really enormous metropolitan city, I actually had no clue to what extent until that afternoon. CCTV is a dominant TV channel for the entire country. The Beijing TV Tower stood at about 350 meters/1148 feet. Its Observation Deck was set at 238.4 meters/782.2 feet, and from there I saw the cityscape known as Beijing. I have to admit China has outdone every county except for Dubai in UAE. Shanghai takes pride of its crazy architectures, but CCTV looks hysteric because of its sheer size like big pants. The day was relatively clear, and I still couldn’t see through the city skyline. The square rooftops on the skyscrapers weren’t all that advanced in the architecture world. When they are combined with a thousand others, however, it becomes absolutely awesome. It kind of actually looked like Minecraft, other than the fact that there were scene circles and triangles. As I walked a full 360 degree around the tower, I began to notice that I got a lot to see in China’s capital. This place was truly attractive since we were high up.

        Beijing doesn’t just have a lush history, but also a huge modern world as well. Both are exciting to see, and my checklist to do grow as I speak.

【紅霞譯文】

        世上沒有永恆不滅的東西，這就是為什麼人們要維修或者重新建造古蹟，希望歷久彌新，在一個具有五千年悠久史的文化古城中愈發屢見不鮮。

        在豐臺區靠近我叔叔家不遠有一個公園──北京園博園，其占地面積不大，到處綠樹成蔭鮮花爭妍，招人眼目的自然景觀更有一座別具遼金王朝風格的八角形永定塔。塔在中國文化上占據相當重要的位置，實際上早已演變成人們寄託希望的寺廟，高聳入雲的建築被視為備受上蒼眷顧的地方。一點沒錯，置身永定塔頂端，的確讓你感覺比站在地上風骨偉岸，烘托出十分濃郁的民族色彩。永定塔共有九層，“九”是單數中最大的陽數，在華夏古代文明中代表至高無上，唯有皇上才擁有的威嚴。這麼一來，只要塔設九層，意味着崇高偉大，虔誠者由此可以平步青雲。

        不巧的是，這座木塔因維修而禁止對外開放。叔叔告訴我說，由於建築太老，2013年一場大火燒毀了部分結構。如今外表修繕一新，但內部裝修尚需要花費很長時間。雖然未能深入永定塔，但絲毫沒有影響我在永定閣、文源亭、蓮石湖等所感受到的“鍾靈秀之氣，郁萬物之英”；園內另有博物館同時對遊人開放。

        北京是一個非常非常非常超級大都會，之前我對它並沒有多少認識，直到今天下午才真正領悟到實際含義。中央電視台主導全國電視頻道，其廣播電視塔大約高達350米／1148英尺，觀景台設在238.4米／782.2英尺處，從這裡我可以放眼環視北京全城。我不得不承認，除了阿聯酋迪拜具有挑戰性而外，中國摩天高樓櫛比，在全球堪稱一絕。上海高屋建瓴，設計風格令人嘆為觀止；相反，中央電視台總部大樓則因意涵怪異而被戲稱“大褲衩”。今天總的來說晴天，不過我仍然無法清晰地勾勒出北京風景線，雖然單一方塊狀屋頂並沒有什麼建築美感，但大片大片地集結在一起，氣勢巍為壯觀，看上去跟計算機設計遍造的“我的世界”差不離，只不過後者由圓柱體和三角形結構組成。我圍着觀景台繞場一周，由衷感嘆中國首都地域寬闊，登高舉目遠望，周圍美景無不盡收眼底。

        北京不僅是文化積澱濃厚的歷史名城，而且還是獨領國際風騷的現代化大都市。說着說着，我出遊參觀的計劃越列越長。