| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
|
| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
| [英文] [中文] [双语对照] [双语交替] [] |
| The flame-shaped neon archway was visible from miles away, which was good since there was little other reason for anyone to be in that part of town, an expanse of fields outside an industrial city in eastern China. The lights flickered between icy blue and red-hot, leaping toward the night sky beside a jumbo sign: “Zibo Barbecue Experiential Ground.” | 拱门上火焰形状的霓虹灯在几里地外就能看到，这有用，因为游客几乎没有其他理由来这个地方，这里是中国东部一座工业城市郊外的一片广阔田野。灯光在冰冷的蓝色和炽热的红色之间摇曳，像火焰般跃向夜空，旁边有一个巨大横幅：“淄博烧烤体验地”。 |
| And what an experience awaited. Inside this Coachella for barbecue, visitors could pose with a mascot dressed like a meat skewer. They could watch a concert against an LED backdrop of radiating flames. They could eat from one of the hundreds of grills scattered across the grounds the size of 12 football fields — if they waited hours for a table, and if their chosen meat purveyor hadn’t run out of food. | 这将是一种怎样的体验啊。在这个烧烤节上，游客可以与外形像烤肉串的吉祥物合影，可以在背景是用LED灯构成的辐射状火焰的舞台前观看音乐会。在这个面积相当于12个足球场的空地上，他们可以从数百个烧烤摊上挑选吃的东西——如果他们等了几个小时后终于有了一张桌子，而且烧烤摊还没有卖光他们想吃的肉的话。 |
| Zibo, a once-obscure chemical manufacturing city in Shandong Province, has suddenly strangely — thanks to, of all things, barbecue — turned into China’s hottest tourist destination. | 淄博曾是山东一座默默无闻的化工城市，突然之间，它竟然靠烧烤不可思议地变成了中国最热门的旅游目的地。 |
| This city of 4.7 million received 4.8 million visitors in March, after it began attracting notice on social media. During a public holiday earlier this month, a Zibo vegetable market was more popular than the Great Wall, according to a mapping service. High-speed rail tickets from Beijing sold out one minute after their release. | 在社交媒体上走红后，这座有470万人口的城市今年3月迎来了480万游客。在本月初的五一长假期间，淄博一家菜市场里的人比长城上的还多，据一家地图服务公司的数据。北京到淄博的高铁车票开售一分钟即售罄。 |
| The local government has set up 21 buses to ferry visitors from the train station directly to barbecue restaurants. They erected the barbecue festival on the site of a sprawling seafood market, the only place big enough to host 10,000 people. | 当地政府安排了21辆公交车，将游客从火车站直接送到烧烤店。他们用一个巨大的海鲜市场来举办烧烤节，那是唯一能容纳一万人的地方。 |
| “We’ve all had good food before, but this kind of hustle and bustle, this warmth, is hard to find,” said Zhang Kexin, a college senior who, within half an hour of arriving in Zibo during the recent holiday, bought six souvenir tubs of pan-fried crackers, another local specialty. | “现在好吃的好喝的大家都享受过了，体验过了，但是这种烟火气的，人情味的，感觉现在很少了，”目前读大四的学生张可馨（音）说，她在最近的五一假期来到淄博，刚到半小时，就买了六盒锅饼作为纪念品，这是当地的另一种特产。 |
| Ms. Zhang had traveled 500 miles from Shanxi Province — not a journey she had ever considered before, though Zibo was a friend’s hometown. “I thought it seemed like a very ordinary place,” she laughed. | 张可馨来自800公里外的山西，她以前从未考虑过来这里，尽管一个朋友的老家在淄博。这里“很普通的，我以前感觉，”她笑着说。 |
| The question of why, exactly, this ordinary place took off has absorbed seemingly all of China, with officials in other cities even sending research teams to Zibo to try and emulate its success. Most explanations attribute the craze’s origins to college students, some of whom posted on social media about the joys of the local barbecue style. Diners grill their own skewers on tabletop charcoal stoves, which lends the meal a D.I.Y. feel, and wrap them in a local specialty of tortilla-like shells, alongside a sprig of raw green onion and a smear of hot sauce. | 这个普通的地方究竟为何突然大受欢迎，这个问题似乎吸引了整个中国，为了复制该市的成功，其他城市的官员甚至派调研组前往淄博实地考察。大多数的解释将这种疯狂的起源归因于大学生，一些学生在社交媒体上发帖，介绍当地烧烤风格的乐趣。要吃烧烤的话，得用餐桌上的木炭炉自己动手烤，然后将烤好的食物裹在当地特产的薄饼里，配上一小撮生葱和一抹辣酱，给吃烧烤添加了一点DIY的感觉。 |
| The cheap prices were also a draw — skewers start at 15 cents at the most popular restaurants — so other young people began flocking to town. Influencers followed. | 价格便宜也是吸引人的原因——最火的餐馆里最便宜的烤串只要一块钱。其他年轻人蜂拥而至。网红们紧随其后。 |
| But perhaps most crucial has been the very fact of how unexpected Zibo’s rise was. As a result, locals — seemingly unable to believe their luck — have done all they can to keep the frenzy alive. | 但淄博走红多么出乎意料这个事实本身也许才是最关键的。结果是，似乎无法相信自己运气的当地人已在竭尽全力让这种狂热持续下去。 |
| Residents have offered their homes to strangers who couldn’t find hotels. After some social media users joked that they wanted eye candy with their barbecue, officials organized a “180 group” — men taller than 180 centimeters, or 5 feet 11 inches, and wearing suits — to greet train station arrivals. | 居民们把自己的房子提供给找不到旅馆的陌生人。一些社交媒体用户开玩笑说想找帅哥陪同吃烧烤后，官员们组织了一个“180天团”，派身高1米8以上的男子穿着西装去火车站迎接游客。 |
| At the station during the May 1 holiday, there were no suited men in sight. But there were plenty of other cheery greeters, handing out water bottles, sunscreen, watermelon (grown in a Zibo suburb), mouthwash (for after barbecue), even flasks of local liquor. | 虽然五一长假期间，没有在火车站外看到身穿西服的男子，但有许多其他热情的欢迎者，他们向游客分发瓶装水、防晒霜、（淄博郊区种植的）西瓜、（吃烧烤后用的）漱口水，甚至还有小瓶的当地白酒。 |
| “Welcome, out-of-town visitors! I hope you have fun!” a woman shouted as she pressed pumpkin-flavored crackers into arrivals’ hands, many of which were already overflowing with freebies. | “欢迎外地游客！希望你们玩得开心！”一名女子一边高喊，一边将南瓜味的饼干递给到达者，许多游客手中已拿满了免费赠品。 |
| For many visitors, the crazy crowds are the point, after China’s prolonged Covid lockdowns. At one of the most popular barbecue restaurants, where hundreds of diners perched on tiny folding stools around outdoor grills, officials had designated an elevated viewing platform just for tourists to watch the people below eat, through a cloud of cumin-scented smoke. | 中国实行了长达三年的“新冠清零”政策后，许多游客是奔着疯狂的人群而来。在一家最火的烧烤店里，数百名食客坐在户外烤架周围的小马扎上，官员们指定一个高架观景平台专供游客透过一团团孜然味的烟雾，观看下方的饕餮盛况。 |
| Li Yang, a local, snagged a table around 6 p.m., after having lined up at 3 a.m. His commute to his job at a steel company was now clogged with traffic. But he didn’t mind. | 当地人李阳凌晨3点就来排队，终于在下午6点左右等到了一张桌子。虽然他去一家钢铁公司上班的路上现在挤满了车，但他并不介意。 |
| “To see all this liveliness, after three years of the pandemic, my heart feels pretty warm,” he shouted, over the sounds of maracas shaken by four men, seemingly unaffiliated with the restaurant, who were gallivanting between tables serenading diners. | “多了这么多人气，跟疫情这三年来比的话，说实话，心里还是挺暖的，”他大声说道，声音几乎被四名摇着沙锤的男子制造的声音淹没，这四名男子似乎与餐厅无关，他们在餐桌之间为食客演奏。 |
| Several tables away, Bai Lingbin, 25, was already digging in, having waited since midnight. His grill, shared with four other men, was piled with toothpick-thin skewers laced with crispy pork skin, sweet potatoes and wraps. | 几张桌子外，现年25岁的白灵斌（音）已经开吃，他午夜刚过就来等座。他与其他四名男子共用一个烤架，食物串在牙签一般细的扦子上，有酥脆的猪皮和红薯，还有卷饼。 |
| Mr. Bai, who had traveled from Anhui Province, was frank: He prefers the barbecue in northeastern China, another famous grilling region. But, he declared as he raised a beer to his table mates, whom he’d met in line: “The atmosphere here is the best.” | 来自安徽的白灵斌坦言：他更喜欢东北烧烤，那是中国另一个以烧烤闻名的地区。但当他向排队时遇到的同桌们举起啤酒杯时，他宣称：“但是所有氛围是吃烧烤中最好的，就是这种热情。” |
| Still, some locals secretly profess a desire to see their hometown’s sudden fame ebb, at least a little. | 尽管如此，一些当地人私下表示，希望看到自己的家乡突如其来的名气消退下去，至少不要像现在这么火。 |
| Staff at barbecue restaurants said they were sleeping only a few hours each night. Residents who used to buy groceries at the suddenly popular vegetable market — where there is now nary a vegetable in sight, as snack and souvenir vendors have piled in — must find their produce elsewhere. | 烧烤店的工作人员说，他们每天晚上只能睡几小时。那个突然走红的菜市场现在看不到蔬菜，里面都是卖小吃和纪念品的摊位，当地民众只得去别处找他们需要的东西。 |
| There was intense pressure to keep customers happy, though, because the government was determined to maintain Zibo’s streak, said Wang Jiuyuan, the manager of a barbecue spot a 30-minute drive from the city center, yet still overrun. Mr. Wang had pasted posters at every table, asking customers for patience because many waiters spoke only the local dialect. | 因为政府已下决心保持淄博的运气，商贩们让顾客满意的压力很大，一家距离市中心有30分钟车程的烧烤店的经理王九元（音）说，虽然他的店地点有点偏，但仍人满为患。王先生在每张桌子傍贴了海报，请求顾客保持耐心，因为很多服务员只会说当地方言。 |
| “We’re afraid of having a complaint filed against us, because as long as it’s an out-of-town customer, the government will accept it, whether it’s reasonable or not,” Mr. Wang said, adding that the restaurant had been scolded after a customer complained about not being seated. | 王九元表示，“我们也害怕投诉。淄博政府只要是外地顾客，不管是什么都受理，不管占不占理都受理。”他还说，一名顾客抱怨没有座位后，他的店已挨了一顿骂。 |
| Some online have worried that the pressure on locals to be accommodating has gone too far, especially after a viral video showed one restaurant owner kneeling to ask forgiveness from a customer upset by long lines. | 网上有些人担心，要求当地人为游客提供方便的压力已经过大，尤其是在一段视频在网上疯传之后，视频显示一名餐厅老板跪着向一名顾客请求原谅，该顾客因排队时间太长发了脾气。 |
| Last month, even the Zibo government seemed to pull back, urging people to visit other nearby cities, because it was overwhelmed. | 上个月，就连淄博市政府似乎也打起了退堂鼓，因为当地的游客太多了，政府鼓励人们去附近其他地方玩。 |
| Down a quiet road on the outskirts of the city, workers in aging factories were kneading handmade sesame crisps, a local delicacy that had also seen a boost in orders as tourists poured in, said Gao Juan, a factory owner. | 淄博郊外一条安静的马路边上，一家老旧工厂的工人们正在揉制手工制作的周村烧饼，这也是一种当地美食，工厂老板高娟说，随着游客的涌入，订单量也在增加。 |
| Ms. Gao had considered pivoting to making the barbecue wraps, which were in even higher demand. Vendors of those wraps were already taking orders for August. | 高娟曾考虑过改为生产卷烧烤用的薄饼，因为需求量更大。薄饼供应商们已经在接受今年8月份的订单。 |
| But the machines for making those wraps were sold out. Ms. Gao was willing to take a long view about whether the craze would last. | 但是制作薄饼的机器已经售罄。高娟愿意用一个长远眼光来考虑烧烤热是否会持续下去的问题。 |
| “When there’s a shortage in the market, it’s easy to overreact,” she said. “Let’s wait and see.” | “市场缺的时候容易爆满、过量，”她说。“先看看。” |
OK阅读网 版权所有(C)2017 | 联系我们