旧金山英文介绍
2014-04-19 21:50阅读：
旧金山介绍英文版San Francisco
San Francisco, open your Golden Gate, sang
the girl in the theatre. She never finished her
song. The date was 18th April, 1906. The earth shook and the roof
suddenly divided, buildings crashed to the ground and people rushed
out into the streets. The dreadful earthquake destroyed the city
that had grown up when men discovered gold in the deserts of
California. But today the streets of San Francisco stretch over
more than forty steep hills, rising like huge cliffs above the blue
waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The best way to see this splendid city, where Spanish people were
the first to make their homes, is to take one of the old cable cars
which run along the nine main avenues. Fares are cheap; they have
not risen, I'm told
, for almost a hundred years.
You leave the palm trees in Union Square --- the heart of San
Francisco --- and from the shop signs and the faces around you, you
will notice that in the city live people from many nations ---
Austrians, Italians,Chinese and others --- giving each part a
special character. More Chinese live in China Town than in any
other part of the world outside China. Here, with Chinese
restaurants, Chinese post-boxes, and even odd telephone-boxes that
look like pagodas, it is easy to feel you are in China
itself.
Fisherman's Wharf, a place all foreigners want to see, is at the
end of the ride. You get out, pause perhaps to help the other
travellers to swing the cable car on its turntable (a city custom),
and then set out to find a table in one of the gay little
restaurants beside the harbour. As you enjoy the fresh Pacific sea
food you can admire the bright red paint of the Golden Gate Bridge
in the harbour and watch the traffic crossing beneath the tall
towers on its way to the pretty village of Tiberon. When you've
finished your meal, you may decide to take aboat-trip around the
bay to look at the sights. You can stare, for example, at the
famous, now empty, prison of Alcatraz. Then
why not go to the fishing village of Sansalito
--- a little like London's Chelsea or New York's Greenwich Village
--- to see people painting and to look at their pictures. You will
be able to enjoy a view of the city from the sea and take pleasure
in the soft red and blue Spanish-type houses shining in the bright
Pacific light. If you have time you might like to go by bus to
Carmel, a hundred miles south of San Francisco, where you will
discover a wild and wonderful coast with high cliffs.
Although the people of San Francisco prefer riding to walking,
you may like to climb up the steep streets. Handrails are provided
so that you can pull yourself up. You can enjoy the splendid shops,
the view from Telegraph Hill, the houses with fountains and garden:
You can also look at the Stage Coach, a familiar sight from Western
films, which is in the window of the Wells Fargo Bank in Montgomery
Street, near the business centre of the city.
I expect you'll notice that all over the city the cars are left
with their wheels turned towards the side walk so that they can't
roll away. Wherever you walk you'll find it hard to lose yourself.
At most of the important crossings there is a plan of the streets
(Lombard Street; Ohio Street; Market Street; and so on)cut into the
stone of the sidewalk so that you can look down and see where you
are.
After so much walking you may feel tired and sticky and ready for
a swim. There is often a thick morning mist from the sea in summer,
but the weather can be very hot. Yet nobody swims in the Pacific.
It is too risky. There are miles and miles of smooth hard sand,
empty because of sharks --- those dreadful big man-eating fish ---
and the high and dangerous waves of the sea. So take a street car
from the city centre to the wonderful swimming pool on the edge of
the ocean. Afterwards you can go to the neighbouring zoo.Later,
while you wait to catch a street car returning to your hotel, you
may even see the sign “Doggy Diner” --- a restaurant for
dogs!
But what about meals for people? As in most of
the big cities, the restaurants offer delicious
food from almost every country. You could have dinner in Chinatown
and then, on the way back to your hotel, catch the last cable car
after midnight: it's not unusual for passengers who arrive late to
have to hang on to the sides of the last car for the whole
journey.
On Sundays parents often take their children to look at the
strange trees in the pretty Japanese Tea Garden in the huge spaces
of Golden Gate Park.
With its hot sun and gay night life, San Francisco is a fine
place to live in or to visit. It is the most European of all
American cities and you'll be sure to grow fond of it instantly. So
tell yourself in the words of a song from the last century, “San
Francisco, here I come!”
