《宣化葡萄香天下》：千年葡萄，千年文化(电视宣传片英文解说词文案)

At the foot of the magnificent mountain Huangyang , by the side of the Liuchuan river, there is a time-honored city which is famous for its adjacency to the Great Wall. This charming city has witnessed the history of thousands of years that is full of vicissitudes and fluctuations, and has been nurturing this 270 square kilometers’ land as well as those individuals and objects. Its prestige is widespread in northern China.

This time-honored city is named Xuanhua, and is also historically reputed as one of the “Nine Important Defense Areas” ,and “ The God Power Protective Screen of Beijing”.

Human beings began to inhibit here in the ancient times dating back more than one million years ago. As one of the original places of human beings， the center of the Paleolithic site of Nihe Wan village, comparable to Oldubai Gorge in Africa, is only 60 kilometers away from Xuanhua. A large number of tools made of stones and pottery relics were unearthed in the heritage sites of New Stone Age of Liujiayao(place name) and Wanghewan(place name).It indicated that Xuanhua ancestors began to live here 6000 years ago with their footprints found throughout the Xuanhua area.

Xuanhua lies to the east of the Yinshan Mountain range, which is adjacent to the desert in the north and the central plains in the south. Its multicultural intersection consists of the central plains’ agricultural culture and the nomadic culture of northern China’s minorities.

• In Xia dynasty andShang dynasty, our country was divided into 9 states. Xuanhua initially belonged to the Ji State and was then incorporated into the territory of the You State. After Qinshihuang uniting the six kingdoms into a whole country, he divided the empire into 36 provinces. Xuanhua belonged to the Shanggu province. During the Tang Dynasty, Anlushan constructed Xiongwu town in today’s Xuanhua area with the aim of reinforcing the border. During the Ming Dynasty, the Emperor Zhuyuanzhang set up the Nine- Town Defense Zone under the direct control of central government. For its strategic position, Xuanhua was conferred upon as the “chief town of the Nine-town Defense zone.”  In the year 1693, it  was renamed as Xuanhua Town belonged to the Zhili Province.

Xuanhua is located to the northwest of Beijing, 150 kilometers apart. To the east it links to Beijing and Tianjin; and to the north it is adjacent to the Shanxi province and the Inner Mongolia. Over the past centuries, it has gained many other reputable names, such as The First Town to the West of Beijing, the Chief Town of the Nine Important Defense Areas, Grape Town, Soldier Town and Town of Drilling Machines and so on.

“There are Two distinctive sceneries in the vicinity of Qingyuan Tower. One half consists of residential houses, while the other half is densely covered with green grapes.”---a fantastic scroll painting stretches in our mind. That is the uniquely picturesque view of Xuanhua, a famous historical and cultural town in Hebei province.

It is usually the Mid-autumn Festival when grapes are ripe. The northern part of this ancient city is occupied by numerous vineyards. With so many transparent and shining grapes hanging on the vines in the vineyards, it’s really amazingly beautiful! You may be surprised by the abundant species, such as the milk white grapes called horse milk , purple longyan grape, murrey rose, agate hongjixin, xueguanzi, manaizi, jingchao, jufeng and cuihong and heihan. They show various colors, like crystal white, transparent purple, scarlet and black with the shapes resembling white jade, red pearl and amber. Among these species the most famous and top quality one is called white horse milk, which features rich flesh and juice. It accounts for the major portion of the grape-farming area, representing 85 per cent of the grape produce in Xuanhua. Xuanhua grapes actually refer to this particular specie.

White grape brunches characters :big-size cone shaped , 31.5cm in ear length, 15.5cm wide, 0.5kg average weight,2.35 kg maximum weight, moderate tightness .The fruit grain: big, oval shaped like cow’s nipples, kelly, 3.23 cm longitudinal diameter,1.98 cm horizontal diameter . 7.5g average weight, 15% sugar content, 0.42% sour content, containing 2-4 seeds every fruit grain, thin skin, fresh, crisp, juicy meat and skin can be stripped, known as Using a knife cut the grape, juice doesn’t flow out ”that other grapes can not surpass. It has been thousands of years since Xuanhua grapes were cultivated with the support of unique funnel support, lots of allusions, legends, anecdotes, interesting stories stem from Xuanhua grapes. Thousands of years of development is marked by thousands of years ‘history. Grape planting as cultural cachet is carrying forward.  Thousands of years of grape-culture and the fragrance of Xuanhua grapes can be felt all over this city.

Xuanhua grape plant emerged 1300 years ago in Tang dynasty

When Zhangqian brought back grape seeds from Western Regions, grapes were grown in royal palaces initially. With the flourish of Buddhism, grapes started to be grown in temples. After Jin and Yuan dynasties, the grapes that were growing in Mituo temple and Chaoxuanguanare among more than 100 temples are most well-known . . We can visualize the scenary based on what is depicted on the Five- dragon screen fof Mituo temple. In the Liao Dynasty, Shaw queen mother built a palace in Xuanhua, and requisition a land of over 20 acres for farming white horse milk grapes, because she specially loved Xuanhua grape.

• After liao period, grape plantings were not limited to temples, on the other hand planting was developed in wealthy families and rural areas with high quality water and soil, plantings were spread with sufficient water and fertile land. A wizened brunch grape and a bottle of brownish red liquid unearthed in wealthy Zhang shiqin ‘s cemetery in 1933.His bury time was lunar calendar 15th,April(solar calendar mid May ) is not grape mature period( solar calendar mid September.) ,which has proved that Xuanhua people had mastered the wintering fresh-keeping technology in Liao dynasty,  for those grapes buried with the dead were planted in the previous year. The liquid is wine, estimated by national cultural relic authenticating center, thus marking the making and drinking grape wine in Xuanhua has a history of more than a thousand year.

• During the period of Jin and Yuan dynasty, the grape planting scale began to take shape in Xuanhua. A poet of Jin dynasty called Liu Yingyong once praised Xuanhua grape lyrically in a poem called ShangGu ,”The vines are full of grapes in the autumn , while the trees are full of peony flowers in the spring”  According to the essays from the Yuan history• Yelv Chucai biography ,the King of the Yuan dynasty sent down an order to migrate the farmers of Xuanhua to the western desert to reclaim wasteland and cultivate grapes. The Prime minister of that time, called Yelv Chucai persuaded the king to abandon the decision of migration for the security and peaceful life of the people.

From which you can see how large the scale of planting grape is in Xuanhua as well as how advanced the technology of planting grapes is .

• After the Ming daynasty, the Liuchuan River was lead to Xuanhua, which brought obvious improvement to the quality of the Xuanhua grape. The Ming and Qing dynasty was the peak period of the Xuanhua grape.

Zhu Yuanzhang the first king of Ming dynasty named his 19th son King Gu. King Gu took office in Xuanhua as well as constructed King Gu royal palace. He then expanded the Xuanhua town and explored vineyards so the Zhangku Avenue is known as the second Silk Road was established which is straight to Mongolia and Russia. At the same time the exchange of furs and grapes reached the summit , additionally, Xuanhua was granted as famous military town and business base.

Due to the invasion of the Eight-Power Allied in 1900, the Empress dowager Cixi and the Emperor Guangxu were foced to leave Beijing and arrived in Xuanhua .They were amazed by the wonderful Xuanhua grapes. From that time on the selected milk grapes were delivered to the imperial court as tribute every Mid Autumn Festival.

•After the successful completion of Beijing-to Zhangjiakou railway in 1909, Xuanhua grapes were active demanded in Beijing and Tianjin and so on.  In 1909 in Panama, exhibition firstly award by international products. A poem argues “The Heavenly Emperor has no idea about the mundane fruit; The Queen Mother only knows flat peach. Only after tasting grapes in the Grape kingdom, learnt Xuanhua grape is so honeyed.”

As the  planting scale expanding ,the milky grape obtain well reputation during the Early Republic of China(1912-1949).The planting area reached 1600 mu (unit of area),over 6150 shelves and output  of 6.8 million kg. Supplying market includes Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and the south part .Export market includes Hong Kong, Macao, England etc.

Xuanhua grape was granted honorary award again in panama exhibition in 1922 and won the Bronze Prize in Kunming Expo in 1999

Xuanhua grape is witnessing the prosperity and decline of this ancient city.  The ancient city culture and the grape culture supplement each other, depending and glistening each other.

Late Ming dynasty, Xuanhua people hold a grape feast to treat Chuangwang Li .He praised and gave a poem: “To conquer the enemy, drink on the horse without dismount. Fortune to take the feast of grape,  no success no return.”

There is an intimate fate between The Chinese “Shakespeare” Mr.Caoyv and Xuanhua. Xuanhua was regarded as his second hometown which impressed him deeply when he inhabited here with his father in his childhood . His inscription for the first grape festival in 1988: Joyou