The Art of Tour Commentary Delievery II

V. Method of Explanatory Introduction

This method is intended to help tourists understand some vague (模糊的) points of tourist sites with plain words. It is often applied when a guide introduces the religion, science, historical interests, or miracles (奇迹) that tourists may fail to understand. For example, when a guide takes tourists to tour the Nanjing Road he should explain why Nanjing Road is most popular in Shanghai, even in China though it is not the first road, nor the widest one in Shanghai. 

Nanjing Road and the Bund are reputed as the “World Architecture Show”, but how they come out. The guide should convince tourists with some typical examples. Nanjing Road is the “Shopper’s Paradise”, and its fame needs your explanations; otherwise tourists may think you are boasting. 

Nanjing Road is also a paradise for gourmets. Do you believe all tourists think so? Not exactly. The guide should explain the various foods available on the Nanjing Road. This method is more effectively when it is used with the method of question-and-answer introduction.

VI. Method of Combining Facts and Figments

This method is applied to amuse tourists and arouse their interests about the tourist sites. The guide may put historical figures, events and myths into his introduction so that tourists are interested at the tourist sites and can better appreciate the landscape or historical interests. When he introduces the Nine-Dragon Pool（九龙池）of the Huaqing Hot Spring the guide can tell a legend about the Jade Emperors（玉皇大帝）and nine dragons. 

Legend has it that the Central Shaanxi Plain (陕中平原) was once stricken by a severe drought (干旱) in ancient time. The Jade Emperor ordered an old dragon to come to rescue. The old dragon led his eight young sons to make rain here. When the drought was little a bit relieved (减轻), the dragons began to relax and play water game here. In a fit of anger, Jade Emperor kept the young dragons under the Jade Causeway (玉堤). In addition, he had the Morning Glow Pavilion（晨旭亭）and the Sunset Pavilion（晚霞亭）built at both ends of the causeway and forced the yang dragons to spout cleat water all day long. 

Besides, he had the old dragon confined (被限制) to the bottom of the Roaring Dragon Waterside Pavilion（龙吟榭）at the upper end of the Jade Causeway, and obliged (强迫) him to exercise control over his young dragons. The love story between Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and the legend of misusing beacon tower to tease vassals in the Western Zhou Dynasty will certainly render your introduction even more impressive and appealing to tourists.

VII. Method of Section-by-section Introduction

This method requires that the whole tourist site be divided into different sections in series (序列) so that a guide could introduce them one by one. First of all, a brief survey of the tourist site should be made on the way or at the entrance, including its history, area, aesthetical (审美的) value and the names of its major scenic spots. By this way tourists will have a preliminary (初步的) impression on the site that they are going to visit. However, a guide should not introduce too much about the next scenic spot when he introduces the present one. 

Towards the end of the introduction of the present scenic spot, it is recommended that the guide briefly introduces the next one so as to arouse their interest for the coming scene.

For instance, when he introduces the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project the guide may have a general introduction of the project first. Then the guide may introduce the water conservancy project according to its components (组成部分). 

The project has major three sections: The front segment of the dike is named “Yuzui” (Fish Mouth), the lower stretch of the dike, “Feishayan” (Sand-flying Spillway) and the final segment is Baopingkou (Bottle-neck Channel), the water channel between Mt Yulei and Lidui (the Isolated Mound) . 

The Fish Mouth was constructed to divide the water into the inner river as a canal and the outer river as a floodway. The Sand-flying Spillway functions as a spillover and serves as flood draining; and the Bottle-neck Channel diverts a due amount of water into the canal. 

The extraordinary coordination of the three major constructions contributes to the miracle of Dujiangyan Irrigation Project. Dujiangyan Irrigation Project is the oldest and also a unique automatic irrigation project without a concrete dam in the world. Today, people still marvel at the application of scientific principles (原理) in the project which turn the Chengdu Plain into the “Land of Abundance”.

VIII. Method of Suspense-Creating Introduction

A guide may suspend (暂停) his introduction suddenly to excite tourists’ curiosity (好奇心) when he explains the key point of a tourist site. It is one of the most effective (有效的) ways to catch their attention, and inspire them to participate in (参与) discussions to seek the answer. If they fail to come up with it, the guide then could help them find the way out and resolve the riddle (谜). There are many ways to create the suspense while taking tourists around of places of interest. The guide may create the suspense in his introduction using the Method of Question-and-answer Introduction, the Method of Section-by-section Introduction, the Method of Combining Facts and Figments, and many more.

 Take the Ancient Lijiang City for an example. When they enter the ancient city tourists will see a city without a city wall. What a surprise! Tourists may wonder why an ancient city was founded with a city wall. The guide may suspend his introduction of the entrance to the ancient city while he creates the suspense (悬念) here. Later he may take a chance to explain the reason when he introduces its history. By this way he successfully creates the suspense, which will certainly arouse (引起) their attention and interest in the layout of the ancient city, as well as stimulate (激发) their enthusiasm (热情) to seek the truth. 

To understand why a city was built without a city wall in Lijiang tourists have to understand the form and meaning of Chinese character “Mu” (“木”) and “Kun”(“困”). Actually, Lijiang had been under the reign of the hereditary(世袭的) Mu family for more than 500 years. When the character “Mu” (represents the governor of Lijiang) is put into a frame (represents the city wall), you have the character “Kun”, which means “siege” (“围困”) or “trap” (“陷阱”). This would mean that the governor Mu and their descendants would always be trapped like a rat in a hole. Because of this symbolism (象征), no city wall was built in the Ancient Lijiang City. The layout of the entrance to the Ancient Lijiang City expresses the sentiment (情感) or attitude of the local people towards the reign of the Mu family at that time.