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.

【紅霞譯文】

        在我看來，公園應該是運動與娛樂的場所，扔一扔飛盤，聽一聽呆在嬰兒車裡的孩童嚎啕哭鬧，當然也可以像北京頤和園那樣讓人尋古探幽。

        頤和園屬於世上非常獨特的公園之一，獨特到這座清朝興建的皇家御苑奇大無比，讓我看得眼花繚亂；獨特到回首清朝往昔，僅有皇帝才夠資格進入清漪園；獨特到客流量暴漲，恨不能成為印度人口爆炸的翻版；獨特到我所在的賓州光華中文學校也把它納入必學內容之列。

        頤和園實為戶外博物館，廣集文化、歷史、趣味於一體，自然風光迤邐秀美。昆明湖位於公園中心，許多遊客喜歡租船來劃，湖上很快呈現出千帆競發百舸爭流的熱鬧景象。昆明湖內有河道直通紫禁城，因此飽食終日的皇帝可以隨時乘船出入自家花園。

        諧趣園林木蔥籠植被豐富，素來“以物外之靜趣，諧寸田之中和”而聞名天下，亭、台、樓、閣、廊、榭等中式古典建築背依長壽山，前傍昆明水，峰迴路轉，布局十分巧妙。恕我直言，頤和園對一個人來說未免太大。當然，中國古代統治者一向追求高大上，自視是天上的玉皇大帝，因此驕泰奢侈不在話下。

        從建築上來看，頤和園與紫禁城十分相似，龍飾無處不在。頤和園別有一處戶外藝術畫廊，在全球範圍內絕無僅有，它就是著名的長廊。長廊之美並非出自建築本身，而在於藝術作品，藝人們在一些面積很小的平面上提筆作畫，於是，一個以古代《二十四孝》故事集、《三國演義》、《西遊記》、《水滸傳》及《紅樓夢》四大名著、中國神話、民間傳說等為題材的風景山水畫、花鳥工筆畫、人物寫意畫的長廊出現在世人面前。體態優雅的天鵝曲着長頸，將頭伸入夕陽輝映下萬籟俱寂水光瀲灩的池塘里，一絲不苟的筆觸把景物刻劃得跟相片一樣清晰。不難看出，工筆畫着重線條細膩，推崇“工而不板研而不甜” 的表現手法。再說藝術家本身擅長色彩搭配，長廊大師又巧用國畫技能，隨着筆墨在空中遊走，一幅幅淵源流長的精美畫卷就繪製出來，並與長廊建築風格相得益彰。丹頂鶴是一種高貴鳥，曾反覆出現在長廊中，藝術作品通過色彩變化讓人們體會溫馨的氛圍，絕非意味着今天氣溫不高。同時我還發覺，頤和園以紅藍綠為主打基調，而這三種色彩均為光的組成部分，不知是否屬於巧合。

        頤和園堪稱園林藝術傑作，可我一次只能涉獵70%左右，對於像本人這把年紀的學童而言，這個數字實在微不足道，但我不得不承認，世上有些東西確實超乎少兒的承受能力。