2015-08-22

【Aiden in English】

        As far as I’m concerned, a park is a place for sports and entertainment. It is a place of Frisbeeing. It is a place of babies crying in their strollers. But it can also be a place with a lush history like the Summer Palace in Beijing. 

        The Summer Palace is one of the kind places on earth. It was so special that this imperial park was built in the Qing Dynasty so big that even I was dazzled by its charm. It was so special that only an emperor in of China was allowed to be inside the Garden of Clear Ripple. It was so special that the number of tourists could be overwhelmingly compared to India. I guess if it made my Guang Hua Chinese School’s curriculum, it would be special. And it was. 

        The Summer Palace is an outdoor museum of culture, history, and stories flourishing everywhere. The scenic sights look more spectacular though if you ask me. The Kunming Lake is etched into the center of the Summer Palace. Many people ride boats rented from the park, and soon the Kunming Lake becomes a boat party. The Kunming Lake has a river that connected to the Forbidden City, and so a lazy emperor could raft all the way to his private garden and back freely. 

        With lavish vegetation of different plants, the Garden of Harmonious Pleasures revolves around the pavilions, terraces, towers, courts, galleries, and houses around the Kunming Lake. It rises up steep slopes of Longevity Hill and goes back down again like valleys. But for one person, the Summer Palace is absolutely too luxurious. Once again, Chinese ancient rulers had to show off how much more glamorous they were compared with ordinary people.

        The architecture of the Summer Palace is very similar to the Forbidden City. Dragons are used as the main décor for empty spaces. However, the Summer Palace has a very unique gallery. It is outdoors and doesn’t like a regular gallery on earth. Known as Long Corridor, this aisle is a beauty not in architecture but in the artwork. The Long Corridor has small sections on the roof that is flat and blank. So what the people did to fill it in was with beautiful artworks of the Twenty-four Filial Exemplars, the Four Great Classical Novels, Chinese mythology, and folktales, etc. Elegant swans dip their heads into a calm, glistering pool of fresh spring water under a blazing sunset of glory. Elaborate-style painting of the sections illustrated the scenes of photographic quality. I must say that the blending of meticulous details is quite something of its own caliber. Being an artist means a good taste and choice of colors. Obviously, the artists here have talent with Chinese traditional painting. It stretches on for some while, which kind of fits the name. The crane is a bird that is depicted many many times throughout the artworks. The contrast of the artworks gives a vibe to the viewers of warmth, not that the day wasn’t hot enough. I also noticed that the main colors of the Summer Palace were red, blue, and green. These colors are also color of light. I wonder if it was intentional. 

        The Summer Palace is so magnificent that I was only able to explore about 70%. For a person like my age, that is a very low percentage of completion. But something is just too big even for kids.

【红霞译文】

        在我看来，公园应该是运动与娱乐的场所，扔一扔飞盘，听一听呆在婴儿车里的孩童嚎啕哭闹，当然也可以像北京颐和园那样让人寻古探幽。

        颐和园属于世上非常独特的公园之一，独特到这座清朝兴建的皇家御苑奇大无比，让我看得眼花缭乱；独特到回首清朝往昔，仅有皇帝才够资格进入清漪园；独特到客流量暴涨，恨不能成为印度人口爆炸的翻版；独特到我所在的宾州光华中文学校也把它纳入必学内容之列。

        颐和园实为户外博物馆，广集文化、历史、趣味于一体，自然风光迤逦秀美。昆明湖位于公园中心，许多游客喜欢租船来划，湖上很快呈现出千帆竞发百舸争流的热闹景象。昆明湖内有河道直通紫禁城，因此饱食终日的皇帝可以随时乘船出入自家花园。

        谐趣园林木葱笼植被丰富，素来“以物外之静趣，谐寸田之中和”而闻名天下，亭、台、楼、阁、廊、榭等中式古典建筑背依长寿山，前傍昆明水，峰回路转，布局十分巧妙。恕我直言，颐和园对一个人来说未免太大。当然，中国古代统治者一向追求高大上，自视是天上的玉皇大帝，因此骄泰奢侈不在话下。

        从建筑上来看，颐和园与紫禁城十分相似，龙饰无处不在。颐和园别有一处户外艺术画廊，在全球范围内绝无仅有，它就是著名的长廊。长廊之美并非出自建筑本身，而在于艺术作品，艺人们在一些面积很小的平面上提笔作画，于是，一个以古代《二十四孝》故事集、《三国演义》、《西游记》、《水浒传》及《红楼梦》四大名著、中国神话、民间传说等为题材的风景山水画、花鸟工笔画、人物写意画的长廊出现在世人面前。体态优雅的天鹅曲着长颈，将头伸入夕阳辉映下万籁俱寂水光潋滟的池塘里，一丝不苟的笔触把景物刻划得跟相片一样清晰。不难看出，工笔画着重线条细腻，推崇“工而不板研而不甜” 的表现手法。再说艺术家本身擅长色彩搭配，长廊大师又巧用国画技能，随着笔墨在空中游走，一幅幅渊源流长的精美画卷就绘制出来，并与长廊建筑风格相得益彰。丹顶鹤是一种高贵鸟，曾反复出现在长廊中，艺术作品通过色彩变化让人们体会温馨的氛围，绝非意味着今天气温不高。同时我还发觉，颐和园以红蓝绿为主打基调，而这三种色彩均为光的组成部分，不知是否属于巧合。

        颐和园堪称园林艺术杰作，可我一次只能涉猎70%左右，对于像本人这把年纪的学童而言，这个数字实在微不足道，但我不得不承认，世上有些东西确实超乎少儿的承受能力。