:故宫英文导游词

  this is the Hall of Preserving Harmony. During the Qing Dynasty, banquets were held here on New Year` s eve in honour of Mongolian and Northwestern China` s xingjiang princes and ranking officials. The Emperor also dinned here with his new son-in-law on the wedding day. Imperial examinations were also held here once every three years. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were three levels of exams: the county and prefectural level, the provincial level and national level. The national exam was presided over by the emperor. The civil service exam in ancient China started during the Han Dynasty. It served the purpose of recruiting Confucian scholars to the ministers and high officials. During the Tang and Qing dynasties reinstituted and ancient system. Once every three years, three hundred scholars from all over the country came to Beijing and took exams for three day and night. This system was abolished in 1905.

  (Behind the hall of preserving harmony)

  this is the largest stone carving in the palace . It is 16.73 meters long, 3.07 meters wide and 1.7 meters thick .It weighs about 200 tons. The block was quarried in Fangshan County, roughly 70 kilometers away. To transport such a huge block to Beijing, laborers dug wells along the roadside half a kilometer apart, and used the groundwater to make a road of ice in the winter. Rolling blocks were used in the summer. In 1760, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty ordered the carving of the existing cloud and dragon design in place of the old one which dated back to the Ming Dynasty.