徐霞客旅游文化园解说词

        （Translated by Lqs6738）

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests:

      Welcome to XU XiaKe Culture and Tourism Park. It is a great honour for me to show you around here. First, I’d like to tell that the Park is made up of five sections: the inscription park; Xu Xiake Museum; the cultural exchange centre; Sheng Ci or the memorial temple; the former residence of Xu Xiake. As the Park is still being constructed, we are going to visit the first phase of the project.

Now, would you please follow me?

1 Xia Xian Bridge

XU XiaKe was highly respected by later generation. he was called “supernatural being who travelled”, so the bridge got its name” Xia XIAN Bridge. What I would like to mention here is that all the trees plants, stones all come from the 19 provinces where XU XiaKe had been to and visited.

In front of is a great red rock, it is vermilion rock, which is produced in Fujian province. It is as long as 9 meters, 1.2 metres high.On it were the inscription by Chairman Mao: I do want to follow XU XiaKe’s footsteps.

On the back of the rock are the contents Premier Wen’s congratulatory letter celebrating 420^th birth of Xu, in which he spoke highly of XU’s  achievements and spirits.

One Chinese character “You” or “travelling” can best summarize XU XiaKe’s life. Here is a huge collection of different style of Chinese calligraphy. One interesting thing is that the whole inscription looks like a huge the Chinese Character travelling from above.

In front of is the so called “Sheng shui Bridge’. There is also an interesting story behind its name. In the old days, the place here was low lying, whenever there was heavy rain, there formed many small oceans, the residents here named the bridge “Sheng shui Bridge’, hoping that they can defeat floods with the magic power of the bridge.

And it is the very bridge that XU XiaKe set off to travel across the country every single time.

4 Xia Guo Xian, Sheng Pen’s handwriting on tablets

Mr Xia Guo xian is widely recognized as the greatest calligrapher in the city of Jiang Yin, he is the chairman of calligraphy Association of the city, he is a student of Mr Shen Peng, the former chairman of Chinese calligraphy Association. He is the pride of people of Jiang yin city. His works enjoy high popularity both home and abroad. Let’s appreciate some of his beautiful works.

The comic strips here are from a book published in 1982, which is about Xu Xia Ke’s biography. They are engraved on pottery and have to go through special process to make them what are now. The pottery bricks are made in the biggest pottery brick factory in Dongguan, China. Xu Xia Ke was known as the “Marco Polo in the Orient”. The comic strips we see here are engraved by Chen Fu Cheng, a very famous calligrapher in writing of indictment.CCTV and many local TV stations have interviewed him and introduced him to more people.

These “road maps” recorded the paths Xu XiaKe had travelled; the districted are divided according to his time. From the age of 21, Mr Xu Xia Ke took more than 30 years to travel across and tour around China, covering 19 provinces and autonomous regionsand correcting many old mistakes in old geography book, he himself was the first geographer to study the karst features, travelling as far as to the Cock Foot Mountain in Yun Nan Province.

The mountain is named “Cock Foot Mountain” simply because the shape of the mountain looks like the claws of a big cock.During his stay in Yun Nan, he climbed the mountain twice, carefully researching the mountain., and was hired to compile the records of Cock Foot Mountain.

He spent 167 days in the mountain area and it is the end of his lifelong travelling. He got sick because of a kind of miasma when doing research, he fell so weak that he could no longer carry on his research; he returned  home and died the next year.

These are some of old steles we collected from all over Jing yin,If you feel interested, take a close look at them.

The works displayed here are great works of contemporary masters. This one is the work of Zhang Hai, now Chairman of Chinese Calligraphy in China.In his handwriting, he praised Xu Xia ke highly for his deeds. It is really a perfect piece of work.

 Look at this bog rock, it is from Zhejiang province, it looks like an elephant, meaning good luck. Pan Lei, a very famous scholar in Qing Dynasty, while reading XU’s biography,once remarked: the most colourful figure in history’ . And it is the highest point of all stele forests .It is a good place to take photos here.

That big rock is actually the biggest seal in the world, which weighs 28 tons. The Four Chinese characters “Xia Yin Tia Xia” are engraved in the rock, which means that Xu’s footsteps were everywhere across China. Yes, the traveler may die, but never will his spirit. You see, here is a big footstep. It is said it is enlarged footsteps of Xu Xia Ke.

The inkstone was made of cyan rock, which weighs 35 tons, its diameters is 4 metres long, it deserved its name, right? The writing brush beside is 3 tons in weight. Can you imagine what a magic book it would be if you write with such a huge writing brush? Now just follow me to see it.

The Famous travel notes of Xu Xia Ke was published by New Culture Publishing House in June, 1924, weighing 22 tons. Go and read it yourself, ok?

That is our late Chairman Li Xian Nian inscription, which reads: “love science, devote to motherland, and respect practice’.

This is the longest stele wall in our park, which has 350 stele works on it.

It broke some records in the process of building. First, it is finished in a short period, Secondly, it has a variety of works from China, thirdly, its theme of culture is highlighted. Lastly, it is rich in different styles.