世界最大的城市化问题
‘The scale of what they need to do is enormous''
英国《金融时报》 帕提•沃德米尔 杨远/译
China has the world''s biggest urbanisation problem and Expo is promising the world''s best solutions.
中国面临世界上最大的城市化问题,而世博会许诺带来世界上最好的解决方案。
By 2030, China will have an urban population of 1bn, having added 350m by then – more than the entire current population of the US, according to a recent McKinsey study, Preparing for China''s urban billion. Even five years before that, China is forecast to have 219 cities of more than 1m each, compared with 35 in Europe today, and 24 cities of more than 5m.
根据麦肯锡(McKinsey)近期发布的《迎接中国十亿城市大军》报告,到2030年,中国城市人口将增加3.5亿,达到10亿。到2025年,中国将有219座城市人口在100万以上(欧洲目前只有35座人口在100万以上的城市),24座城市人口超过500万。
Shanghai, with nearly 20m already, is a living experiment in urbanisation – and one that is mostly failing. The polluted Huangpu river runs between banks crowded with concrete apartment complexes with little or no greenery (but lots of hanging laundry). Parks are few and playgrounds almost unheard of; pedestrianisation is limited and walking is deemed one of the city''s most dangerous sports.
目前人口已接近2000万的上海,是一场活生生的城市化实验——而且在大体上是失败的。污染严重的黄浦江两岸密布混凝土公寓高楼的住宅小区,几乎没什么绿化(晾的衣服倒是不少)。公园很少,游乐场几乎闻所未闻;行人专用区有限,步行被视为该市最危险的运动之一。
For years, Shanghai has smothered its history inskyscrapers, and Expo has accelerated that process. At the Expo site itself, the Shanghai government did convert one steel plant into a theatre; but outside Expo, numerous traditional buildings have been knocked down.
多年来,上海狂热地兴建高楼大厦,遮盖了自己的历史,而世博会对此起到了推动作用。上海政府确实把世博会场址的一间钢铁厂改造为剧院。不过,别处的许多传统建筑都被拆除了。
Wujiang Lu, the city''s famous snack street where stalls served everything from octopus to offal on a stick, is gone. There was nowhere to sit and the rubbish bins were too infrequently emptied – but rather than install benches and schedule extra visits from the trash collectors, the city opted for demolition. Starbucks and Krispy Kreme are there but Little Yang''s famous crispy-bottomed soup dumpling stand is no more.
上海著名小吃街吴江路不复原貌。原来这里的排挡有各种小吃,从章鱼到杂碎串,没有坐的地方,垃圾箱总是满的。但市政当局并没有摆放长凳,也没有安排环卫部门更频繁地收集垃圾,而是选择拆除。现在,那里有星巴克(Starbucks)和卡卡圈坊(Krispy Kreme),可著名的“小杨生煎包”没有了。
Part of the point of Expo, whose motto is “Better city, better life”, is to make sure Shanghai thinks twice before demolishing the next
上海世博会的主题是“城市,让生活更美好”。本届世博会的部分意义,就是确保市政当局在拆除下一条吴江路之前三思而后行。“上海(在城市化方面)可能越过世界其它地区,因为上海希望做、也需要做的事情规模如此之大,”思科(Cisco)世博会项目总监安东尼•埃尔维(Anthony Elvey)表示。
Wujiang Lu. “Shanghai could leapfrog the rest of the world [on urbanisation], because the scale of what they want to do and what they need to do is so enormous,” says Anthony Elvey, director of Cisco''s Expo pavilion.
抱着把综合城市管理系统推销给中国各个城市的希望,世博会思科馆称颂着以微晶片技术改进生活的欢乐,包括一种手表大小的监测器,兼具检查孕妇子宫收缩情况、叫救护车、通知产妇的丈夫、把产科医生从床上叫起来、预约产房等多种功能。
Hoping to sell its integrated city management systems to China''s mayors, the Cisco pavilion is a celebration of the joys of a microchip-enhanced life: right down to wristwatch-sized monitors that simultaneously check the contractions of a pregnant woman, summon the ambulance, inform her husband, rouse the obstetrician from bed and book a delivery room.
的确,“互联城市生活”是世博会企业馆的一个重点:学童可使用全球定位设备查找回家的公交路线,到家时,乡下的奶奶正等着他们——在电子设备的那一端;汽车联系交通网格,查询最方便的停车地点。
Indeed, connected urban living is a main focus of the corporate Expo pavilions: schoolchildren use global positioning devices to find the best bus route home, where they are greeted by a grandmother who has just teleported in from the provinces; cars talk to the traffic grid to find out where best to park themselves.
有些世博会因发明长久应用而得到世人铭记;有些世博会不过是超前技术的坟场。上海世博会将永远改变城市生活,抑或只是一场城市空梦?答案也许要几十年后才能知道。
Some Expos are memorable for inventions that endure; others are mere graveyards for technologies that came before their time. It could take decades before it is known which category Shanghai falls into: a moment that changed urban life forever, or just an urban fantasy.
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