北京胡同英语导游词.docVIP

　Good morning，Ladies and Gentlemen：Welcome to Beijing，and welcome to todays Hutong tour！First of all，I would like to start with the termHutong，H-U-T-O-N-G what does Hutong mean？ According to experts，the word Hutong originated from Mongolian language meaningWell.In ancient times，people tended to gather and live around wells. So the original meaning of Hutong should bea place where people gather and live. Nobody knows exactly how many Hutongs there are in nowadays Beijing. But one thing is for sure，if we connected all the Hutongs together，their total length would even be longer than the famous Great wall，which is about 4000 miles longer. 　　Today you can find various Hutongs with different shapes，lengths or directions.The shortest one is only 40 centimeters wide, And some Hutongs have more than 20 turns.　As we walk through the Hutongs，you may find most of them look almost the same with gray-colored walls and bricks. Actually inside those walls are the courtyard houses，where people live. In Chinese we call themsiheyuan. 　　The gate building of each Siheyuan is the only thing that we can see along the Hutongs. Chinese people used to try to protect their privacy from being intruded by strangers. So the gate building，in old times，was a symbol to show the position of each house owner. look at thtis one nest door，it has the lion design，because that owner used to be a military officer. Interesting？ Now lets see the doorway. Almost every doorway has a threshold，that high step over there. For what reason they put a big step at the door？You know Chinese people believe all the evil spirits are short. They can not jump over high steps. So the threshold is actually for warding off evil spirits. 　　In old times，transportation was not as convenient as today，so street vendors played a very important role in Hutong life. They wandered from lane to lane selling various goods or providing all kind of services. People could judge the goods or services from their peddling or the sounds of t