岭南名胜中英文导游(15)
上下九步行街
Shangxiajiu Shopping Street
[西关沧桑]
上下九步行街位于广州四个中心城区之一的荔湾区；几百年来，这里一直是广州最繁华的商业区。唐代（618—907）以前，这里还是珠江边上的河涌交错的沼泽地。公元526年（南朝梁武帝中期）印度王子菩提达摩东航横渡印度洋来华传授禅法时就是在这里上岸。达摩在岸边建佛庵不断扩大并改名为华林寺，其所在地仍叫“西来初地”。
清代以前，这一带还不属于城区；因为在西城门之外，故俗称“西关”。明朝时，广州是中国唯一的对外通商口岸；到了清代，广州出现一大批富商。这些富商不愿意住在拥挤的旧城区，纷纷在这里建起大屋定居，从而使这一带逐渐发展成为广州新的居民区和繁华的商业区。
[History of Xiguan]
The
Shangxiajiu Shopping Street is located in the Liwan District, one
of the four downtown districts of Guangzhou. For the last hundreds
of years, the district has always been the busiest section of the
town. However, until the 7th century during the Tang
Dynasty (618 -907 AD), this place had been but a stretch of
marshland with crisscrossing ditches and brooks on the north bank
of the Pearl River. In 526 AD, when the Indian prince Dharma sailed
east across the Indian Ocean and arrived at Guangzhou to propagate
Chan Buddhism, here was the very place where he first went ashore.
This Indian prince set up a hut on the bank of the river to preach
Buddhist doctrine, which was gradually extended into the
present-day Hualin Temple. Now the place around the temple is still
called Xi Lai Chu Di, meaning” The First Landing Field when coming
from the West”.
Prior to
the Qing Dynasty, the Liwan District lay outside the west gate of
the city walls, and so the area is commonly known as Xiguan,
meaning “Western Outskirts “in English. During the Ming Dynasty
between the 14th and 16th centuries,
Guangzhou became China’s only trading port that was opened to
foreign countries and, down to the Qing Dynasty several hundred
years ago, many businessmen made great fortune from trades. These
millionaires were fed up with the bustle of the heavily inhabited
city center and had their houses built in this area one after
another, so the district gradually developed into a new residential
and business quarter.
[西关商廊]
上下九步行街全长约1500米，有商铺300多间，其中不少是广州久负盛名的老字号；这里的商品琳琅满目，应有尽有，是名符其实的购物天堂。以上下九商业步行街为主干，周围还分布近十条专业街；如：清平农贸市场，西来初地华林玉器街，源胜街陶瓷古玩街，德星路服装配料街等。其中最值得一游的是华林玉器街；全长1000米的玉器街有店铺400多间，广州八成以上的玉器商均集中在这里；他们除销售各式玉器制品外，还经营打制金银首饰。广州的玉雕工艺品选料考究，做工精细，因而驰名中外，其传统代表作是玉雕球。玉雕球是在一整块玉石上从外到里镂空成多层球体（可多达30多层）；层层转动自如，而且每层的表面上均雕刻着各种图案；可见广州玉雕工艺之高超。
[The Xiguan Shopping Arcades]
The
1500-meter-long Shangxiajiu Shopping Street, flanked by some 300
stores and many of them being well-known old shops, is indeed a
“paradise “for shopping. In this street, a great variety of
articles are on sale, with just about everything one could wish to
find. Around this shopping street are 10 other streets for
specialized trades, such as the Qingping Farm Produce Market, the
Hualin Jade-ware Street, the Yuansheng Pottery Antique Street and
the Desheng Garment Accessory Street. Among them, the jade-ware
street is well worth mentioning. This jade-ware street, about1000
meters long, has more than 400 shops and over80%of the jade-ware
dealers in Guangzhou are gathered here. Apart from selling jade
articles, they also take up the making of gold and silver
ornaments. The art of jade-carving in Guangzhou has long been
famous all over the world for its good quality and fine
workmanship. Of the many jade wares made in Guangzhou, the
jade-ball is the most exquisite and is the representative work of
Guangzhou jade carving. A jade-ball is carved out of one whole
piece of jade stone, with as many as 30 smaller balls one inside
the other, which are all movable and are all carved with beautiful
designs.
[“食在广州”和西关美食]
中国民间有一句概括人生享受的俗语：“生在苏州，住在杭州，食在广州，死在柳州”。广州的烹调技术早在唐代就已相当成熟；在漫长的发展过程中，广州人既继承的中原饮食文化的传统，又博采外来烹调技术的精华，形成了独具特色的粤菜；其特点是“清，鲜，嫩，滑，爽”，讲究“色，香，味，形”俱佳；其二是用料广泛菜式繁多。有人说，除了飞机和桌椅之外，凡是地上有脚和天上能飞的东西都能被广州人加工成美味佳肴。此话虽非确切，但也不无道理；正如上海人注重穿着一样，广东人特别讲究吃。根据有关部门统计，广州人花在食物上的开支远远比其它地方的人要多，而他们在外用餐的品军年支出占其食品支出的比重接近40%。“饮早茶”是广州饮食文化的一大特色。
广州人去酒楼“饮茶”，除了进食之外，其实更重要的是借此与亲朋好友相聚或进行社交活动，而老年人则借此消磨时光。人们点上“一盅两件”，一边喝茶吃点心一边聊天，国事家事天下事，其乐融融。过去只有“饮早茶”，现在已发展为早、午、晚三个茶市；一些酒楼从早到晚都挤满食客。广州人这一饮食习惯造就的广州饮食业长盛不衰的态势。目前广州的饮食店有两万家以上，平均日接待量高达200万人次，年营业额达500亿元以上。“食在广州”确是实至名归。然而，当人们说到“食在广州”时，其实说“食在西关”更为贴切，因为广州最著名的小吃和美点大多出自西关。1998年，在全国首届“中华名小吃评定会”上，中国烹饪协会授予广州市21个“中华小吃”中，出自西关的就有11个。在上下九步行街上，至今还保留了很多久负盛名的小食店；广州最著名的几家老字号餐馆也集中在这里，如始建于1889年了莲香楼、创建于1885年的陶陶居酒家、有近百年历史是广州酒家等。
[Delicious Food of Guangzhou and Xiguan]
No
comment on the city of Guangzhou is complete without mentioning its
distinctive cuisine. And the mere mention of Cantonese food brings
to mind a popular Chinese saying that summarizes the spiritual and
creature comforts of life. It goes like this: To enjoy the best
that life has to offer, one has to be born in Suzhou, to live in
Hangzhou, to eat in Guangzhou and to die in Liuzhou – because
Suzhou is renewed for its beautiful women, Hangzhou for its
scenery, Guangzhou for its delicious food and Liuzhou for the
finest wood for making coffins.
As far
back as the 7th century during the Tang Dynasty,
culinary art of Guangzhou was already quite perfect. During the
long years of its evolution, the outward-looking Cantonese
incorporated some foreign cooking skills with the traditional
Chinese cookery handed down from Central China and thus created the
unique Cantonese cuisine. So, of the varieties of food available in
China, Cantonese food is perhaps the most pleasing to Western
palate and is altogether different from those of other places. For
one thing, the style 0f cooking is different; for another, the
variety of dishes and ingredients for preparation of Cantonese food
are numerous, in contrast to the monotony of those of other
cities.
Cantonese
food in many instances uses steam and water for preparation,
instead of frying, with the tastes leaning to the light side and
moderation with spices. Fresh ingredients are often cooked in high
heat for only a short time to maintain their inherent crispness.
Another notable difference is the emphasis given to the appearance
of the food. This is nowhere more noticeable than in the
presentation of cold hors d’oeuvres, where the foodstuff will be
arranged to form a bird, a butterfly or a flower. They will be
distributed to provide not only an appropriate color but the right
textual appearance as well. So stand up and take a good look at
this when it is served. You will often feel it is too attractive to
break up for serving.
While
Cantonese food is exquisite in its making, the materials used for
preparation are many and varied. As a saying goes, except airplane
and chair or table, everything on earth that has legs and all
things that can fly in the sky can be made into delicious food by
the Cantonese. This is certainly not fully correct but, in a sense,
is true. Just as people of Shanghai are particular about their
clothes, so are the Cantonese fastidious about their food. People
of Guangzhou spend a much higher percentage of their income on food
than people in other parts of the country and, according to
statistics by departments concerned, the money the Cantonese spend
on dining out in the restaurants accounts for 40% of their
expenditure on food. One of the Cantonese social customs that is
unique to this country is that people here like to have breakfast
in the restaurant. This is known as” drinking morning tea” and is
often n occasion for friendly association or business connection.
For some old people who’ve retired, this is their daily pleasure,
chatting with their old fellows while tasting the dim sums and
having cups of tea. Now the” tea meal” has extended to “afternoon
tea” and” evening tea”. Since the Cantonese are keen eaters who
spare no money on food, some of the restaurants and snack bars in
the city, totaling 20,000 or more than that cater for an average of
up to two million diners a day with an annual business volume of
more than 50 thousand million yuan, are always thronged with people
from morning till late at night. Sometimes especially on Sundays or
public holidays, people have to get up before dawn in order to
reserve a table and even have to make reservation for a New Year’s
Eve dinner half a year ahead of time. Guangzhou is indeed a” City
of Eating”.
While
Cantonese food is universally acknowledged as one of the best in
China, we may as well say that the best food in Guangzhou is made
in Xiguan because many of the famous Cantonese dishes and snacks
originate from this district. In 1998, a national cooking contest
for choosing” the best Chinese snacks” was held under the auspices
of the Chinese Culinary Art Association. Of the 21 prize Cantonese
snacks, 11were traditional Xiguan snacks. Now in the Shangxiajiu
Shopping Street there are still many well reputed old snack bars
and many of the city’s best-known old restaurants are located here,
such as the Linxianglou Restaurant which was started in 1889, the
Taotaoju Restaurant established in 1885 and the hundred-year-old
Guangzhou Restaurant.
[西关风情]
西关不仅是几百年来广州繁华的商业区，而且这里的市容市貌极具岭南特色；上下九步行街两旁的“骑楼”就是广州特有的建筑形式。广州是中国对外开放最早、华侨众多的城市。一些归侨把西方古典建筑中的券廊与广州传统的“竹筒屋”结合起来，创造出这种跨人行道而建的“骑楼”。由于广州地处亚热带，夏天阳关强烈，气温高达38C，年均降雨量达1730毫米；这种骑楼下的长廊既可供行人避风雨防日晒，又有利于商铺汇聚客流，所以一时风靡全城，成为广州大街商铺的主格局。
在上下九路周围的内街，有一些外形和结构独特的民居建筑；它们是旧时富商们的住宅，被称作“西关大屋”。这些西关大屋不但高大结实，而且屋里屋外均用木雕、石雕、陶雕、灰雕等装饰，是当时广州极具代表性的民居。西关地区这种大屋在清末时多达800多间，但现在仅存不足100间，成为受政府保护的文物了。西关是近代广州风貌的缩影，上下九步行街是广州百年来作为中国繁荣商阜的历史见证。
[Features of Xiguan]
The
Xiguan area not only has been the busiest commercial district of
Guangzhou over the last hundreds of years but the style of the
buildings here is typical of South China features.
The arcaded buildings along the Shangxiajiu Shopping Street,
with a passage-way underneath, are unique to this country and are a
kind of architecture created by the returned overseas Chinese. As
you know, Guangzhou, the native home of a great many overseas
Chinese, is situated at the south of the Tropic of Cancer, with the
highest temperature going up to 38 degrees centigrade and an annual
rainfall amounting to 1730 millimeters. The sun is very strong in
summer and from April through September is the rainy season when
monsoons often come and heavy showers suddenly fall right out of
the blue. So, when the overseas Chinese came back to build their
houses here, they incorporated the ancient arcade structure of the
Western countries in the tradition local building called
“bamboo-tube house”. These passage-ways under the buildings along
the street not only are good for sheltering the pedestrians from
the rain and the strong summer sun but also can help the stores to
collect shoppers; therefore this style of buildings was once
popularized throughout the city.
In the
back street around the Shangxiajiu Shopping Street, there are some
old residential houses that are unique in appearance and
architecture. These high and solid houses, known as “Xiguan Big
House”, were built by the former rich merchants and were all
decorated with wood-carvings, stone-carvings, pottery sculptures
and lime-sculpture. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the number of
such houses amounted to 800 and more, but now not more than 100
survive and have become historical relics protected by the
government.Xiguan is the epitome of Modern Guangzhou and the
Shangxiajiu Shopping Street is a witness to the history of the
Guangzhou as a flourishing commercial port of China.
《导游实训教材》（Timwu 等编）
加载中，请稍候......
加载中…