超级军网美国《国家地理》杂志报道中国高铁
来源：百度文库 编辑：超级军网 时间：2024/04/28 17:38:42
美国国家地理杂志http://news.nationalgeographic.c ... ansportation-world/
China Advances High-Speed Rail Amid Safety, Corruption Concerns
中国高铁在安全与腐败的质疑声中前行
Photograph by Michael Yamashita, National Geographic
Despite popularity of high-speed trains (pictured, passengers enroute to Zhengzhou), many are worried about safety and charges of corruption.
配图是发往郑州某普铁客车内景：高铁虽火，很多人还是很担心安全和腐败问题
Ye Shaoguang sits in his mud-and-brick home, waiting for the next explosion. It's June, and his living room is filled with the bounty of rural Hunan: freshly plucked bayberries and ceramic jars of fresh honey from his bee colony. He ladles dark yellow syrup into a bowl. "Eat it," he says. "It's wild honey, like nothing you'll get in the cities." (Related pictures: "Chinese High-Speed Rail in Focus.")
叶少光（Ye Shaoguang）在泥砖砌成的家中，坐等下一轮爆炸。时值六月，客厅里堆满了湖南农家的珍宝：新摘的山桃和盛满新鲜蜂蜜的瓦罐。他将暗黄色的糖浆舀入碗中，招呼到：＂尝尝，这可是野生蜂蜜，城里可找不到。＂
Beyond Ye's front yard is a rice field, and beyond that, a gaping hole in the side of the valley: a tunnel being blasted through the mountains. When completed next year, the Zhangjiashi tunnel will allow trains to race 200 miles (320 kilometers) an hour between the southern metropolis of Kunming and the financial hub of Shanghai.
叶家的前院是一片稻田，再远处的山侧则豁然洞开：山体内正爆破开凿一条隧道。明年完工后，沪昆高铁列车将以320公里的时速在Zhangjiashi隧道内飞驰。
The project symbolizes China's 21st-century aspirations: High-speed trains are a national priority for China, with 10,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) of lines due to link 24 cities by 2020. Since the program got under way in 2007, half of the lines have been built, with another major north-south artery the length of the country set to open later this year. It's an engineering blitzkrieg meant to awe the Chinese people and show off the nation's new industrial might.
这一工程是中国21世纪梦想的象征：在中国，高铁是全国重心，预计2020年之前，将有一万英里的线路连接24座城市。自该工程于2007年启动后，计划中一半的里程已然建成，另有一条纵贯中国南北的干线将于今年晚些时候开通。这是一场旨在震撼中国民众、炫耀国家工业实力的工程奇袭。
Less impressive have been the costs—financial and human. Last year two events happened that continue to shake the railway system and China as a whole. One was the detention of China's once powerful railway minister, Liu Zhijun, an old-style communist central planner who rolled out the high-speed network like a general using human-wave tactics.
然而工程的代价却不这么出彩，其中包括财政和人身代价。去年发生的两个事件仍继续震动着铁路系统乃至整个中国。其一，盛极一时的铁道部长刘跨越被捕，他是一位老式共产中央计划者，如同使用人海战术的将军一样推进高铁网络。
Thousands of work teams were deployed to blast open mountains, bridge gullies, and pave over the countryside. But investigations show that Liu's methods were based on massive corruption, and he himself is accused of graft and "sexual misconduct."
数以千计的工程队伍被派往各地开山、架桥、铺轨。但调查显示刘的方法乃建立于大规模贪腐之上，而他本人也被控以贪污与生活不轨。
The other event that has caused a broader rethink of China's development path was a terrifying crash of two high-speed trains last year near the city of Wenzhou. The crash has come to symbolize the ruling Communist Party's development-at-all-costs strategy. One commentator said on national television that China was "leaving the souls of the people behind." As one crash survivor told me: "Where is happiness? Is it only in statistics and numbers?"
另一大事件则引发了关于中国发展路线的更广泛的思考：骇人的温州高铁追尾。这场事故象征着当权共党不惜代价的发展思路。一位评论员在全国电视上说：＂等等人民的灵魂。＂一位事故幸存者告诉我：＂幸福在哪里？难道只在统计数据里？＂
One upshot of these scandals is that the ministry—which has been run since the People's Republic's founding in 1949 as a quasi-military fiefdom, with its own courts and police force—may lose its independent status and be subsumed by the Ministry of Transport. That could happen as soon as the Communist Party's 18th Congress, slated to start November 8.
这些丑闻亦有积极的一面：铁道部这一拥有法院与警察的、自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来即以半军事化管理的小天地或将失去独立地位，从而并入交通部，而这一切最快有可能在十一月八日开幕的十八大上实现。
"This Shows We Are a Great Country"
＂这说明我们是一个伟大的国家＂
These tensions are on display at the emerging Zhangjiashi tunnel here in the Hunanese countryside. The construction methods are traditional: The 60 workers bore holes into the mountainside with long, thin drills, insert sticks of dynamite, and clear the rubble by hand. Blast by blast, they extend the tunnel about a yard each day. It's slow, exacting work, but they have a chance to earn $600 a month, five times what they make as farmers.
在湖南Zhangjiashi隧道项目上，中国铁路的种种矛盾展露无遗。建筑方法颇为传统：六十名工人在岩壁上钻出深孔、填入炸药、人工清理碎石。一轮轮爆破，每日推进约一米。这是一项缓慢、高要求的工作，但工人们每月可挣得600美元，相当于农民收入的五倍。
The tunnel manager is a wily businessman named Qian Shengmu, who has no formal education and learned his trade by trial and error over the past 25 years.
工程经理钱生睦（Qian Shengmu）是一名精明的商人，他没受过正规教育，在过去25年的摸爬滚打中熟悉这一行当。
He gets financing from loan sharks, and the high interest rates they charge—upward of 60 percent—mean that he's always pushing his men to hurry up and finish. Deals, he says matter-of-factly, are secured through bribes.
他通过地下钱庄获得贷款，高利率（甚至达到60%）迫使其不断地催促手下早日完工。他一本正经地说到合同是通过行贿获得的。
Old Mr. Ye and his family have strong opinions about the push for high-speed trains. "Of course it's good," Ye says. "It's a sign that China is rich." His mother-in-law disagrees. "It will crack our walls! Who will buy us a new house when ours collapses from the vibrations?"
老叶一家对高铁的建设各有不同主张，老叶本人认为高铁甚好，乃国家富裕的象征。而他的丈母娘则不同意：＂家里房子会被震裂！房子震塌了谁给我们买新的？＂
Ye would never ride on a bullet train-he can hardly afford the slow train to the provincial capital, Changsha, a 75-mile (120-kilometer) ride away. But he prides himself on thinking strategically. "This is a national issue," he says with finality. "This shows we are a great country."
老叶从未坐过高铁，到省会长沙（距离120公里）的普铁票都令他感到吃力。但他对自己的战略思维颇为自豪，他决然地说：＂这可是国家大事，显示我们是一个强国。＂
A few moments later the mountainside rumbles, and the house shakes. An angry murmur emanates from the hives on the front stoop, and bees swarm out in the heavy afternoon air, threatening to attack. They fly off, and quiet returns. "You see," Ye says triumphantly. "Nothing collapsed."
片刻之后，山里传来闷响，房子震动。蜂巢里一阵愤怒的嗡嗡，群蜂在午后闷热的空气中出动，架势狰狞。它们飞走了，而后静静地归巢。老叶得意地说：＂您瞧，啥都没倒。＂
Few countries have such a vexed relationship with railways as China. When the first line was laid in 1876, many Chinese worried that the steel bands would disrupt the flow of chi, or life energy, which, according to ancient belief, is channeled through mountains and valleys, people, and animals.
天下少有像中国那样与铁路有着如此纠结的关系。当第一条铁路在1876年铺下时，许多中国人担心铁轨会搅乱＂气＂流，或称生命能量，根据传统理论，气在人体、天地万物、飞鸟走兽中穿行。
Pragmatists fretted that in an already overpopulated country the rails would add to unemployment by supplanting boatmen and coolies. As one official put it to a United States visitor in the late 19th century: "They bring in foreigners whom I do not like, and they throw men out of work."
实用主义者则担忧铁路将在人口过剩的国家里取代船工和苦力，从而加剧失业。正如19世纪末一位官员向美国到访者所说：＂火车输入吾本不喜之外国人，并抢去中国人的饭碗。＂
How China's Rail System Developed
中国的铁路系统是如何发展的
In 1911 the imperial government conceded that China needed a railway system and announced that it would nationalize and expand the network. Because the government was near bankruptcy, it was decided to allow foreigners to buy equity stakes, effectively giving them ownership.
1911年，清庭承认中国需要铁路系统并宣布将国有化和扩大铁路网。因政府濒临破产，所以它允许外国人执股，事实上将铁路所有权拱手相让。
Patriots were outraged and formed the Railway League to oppose foreign takeover. Many government troops joined the league. Later that year the soldiers mutinied, and the child emperor Puyi abdicated, ending 2,000 years of imperial rule.
爱国者极为愤怒，组成护路团阻止外国并购。许多政府军队皆加入其中。当年，军队哗变，幼帝溥仪退位，二千多年的封建统治告终。
When the Communists took power in 1949, China still had a small, fragmented rail system—less than half the mileage the British left India in 1947. Half the lines were in the northeast, which Japan had colonized and developed, and most of the rest ran down the eastern seaboard.
共产党于49年上台之时，中国仅有一个小型、零碎的铁路系统，不足1947年英国留在印度的铁路里程的一半。全路一半里程集中在东北日占区，余下大部分位于东部沿海。
The early Communist leaders were unenthusiastic railway builders, but they left a lasting legacy: The railway under Chairman Mao became a quasi-military operation. The Ministry of Railways, headquartered across the street from the Ministry of Defense, emerged as one of China's most powerful bureaus. Its construction branch was called the tiedaobing, or "railway soldiers."
共产党早期领导人并不热衷于铁路建设，但他们留下了一笔长期遗产：铁路在毛主席的手下成为一项半军事化事业。与国防部一街之隔的铁道部成为中国最强大的部门之一，它的建设队伍被称为＂铁道兵＂。
One line was pushed out west to link the restive province of Xinjiang, which was also home to the Lop Nor nuclear testing facility. In a feat of engineering, another line was punched from the inland city of Chengdu through the mountains to Kunming, not far from the border with then North Vietnam, China's ally engaged in a war with the U.S. More than 2,100 workers died building this line, and many were declared national martyrs for their sacrifice.
一条线路通往中国西部动荡省份新疆，这是罗布泊核试验设施的所在地。另一项工程绝技则是穿越千山万水的、连接腹地城市成都与离北越不远的昆明的铁路，中国与北越在越战中乃同盟。超过2100名工人在建设成昆铁路时丧生，因为他们付出的牺牲，许多工人被追认为全国烈士。
Despite these heroic efforts, during the communists' first 30 years in power the number of rail miles only doubled, to 30,000. By the year 2000, China had 42,000 miles (67,000 kilometers) of track—about a third as much as the U.S. That's when Beijing made railway building a national priority. Within a decade the total mileage had risen to 56,500, and it is planned to reach 75,000 by 2015. Rails are transforming China's mental geography.
尽管付出了英勇努力，建国三十年后中国铁路里程仅仅翻番，达到三万英里。到2000年，中国拥有四万二千英里（6万7千公里）铁路，约为美国的三分之一。从此，北京将铁路建设列为全国重点。十年时间里，铁路里程达到56500英里，计划将于2015达到75000英里。铁路正改变中国心理上地理。
Cities that in the past seemed hopelessly remote or only reachable by infrequent flights are now a couple of hours away. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line, which opened in 2011, cut travel time from 12 hours to less than 5. (That's the distance from Philadelphia to Atlanta, which takes 16 hours by Amtrak.)
过去那些穷乡僻壤或仅有数趟航班可及的地方，如今不过仅隔几小时。2011年开通的京沪高铁将旅程从12小时压缩短到不足5小时。（相当于费城到亚特兰大的距离，乘Amtrak需16小时。）
High-speed service is no less transformative on short stretches, as I discovered going from the poor mountain town of Hengshan in Hunan to the provincial capital of Changsha. The tracks ran as straight as the crow flies, with mountains, villages, and marshes all yielding to the railway ministry's might. I sat next to a farmer who was traveling to visit his daughter in Changsha.
高铁对于短途旅行也同样是变革性的，我在从湖南衡山到长沙的路上深有体会。这条高铁如空中航线般笔直，在祟山峻岭、村庄、滩涂间穿行，一马平川，势不可拦。我坐在一名前往长沙探望女儿的农民身边。
"It used to be so bitter to make this trip," he said as we whooshed out of the last tunnel at 150 miles (240 kilometers) an hour and entered the flatlands. "Now we've already arrived." The 85-mile (135-kilometer) trip used to take 4 hours; we did it in 35 minutes. The link is helping Hengshan boom, with apartments and shops opening for new residents who commute to Changsha. (See pictures of China's cities.)
当我们以240公里的时速冲出最后一个隧道、进入平原时，他说：＂过去走这条路真是辛苦，现在我们就到了。＂以前，这段135公里的路程费时4小时，现在仅需35分钟。这条高铁推动衡山快速发展，面向长沙、衡山两地通勤人士的公寓楼和商店逐渐开张。
Inside China's Train Factories
走进中国的列车工厂
The pride of China's high-speed rail fleet is the 380A model, an all-Chinese manufactured train capable of cruising at 217 miles (350 kilometers) an hour, with a top working speed of 258 miles (415 kilometers) an hour. In a test run in 2010—with Railway Minister Liu cheering the driver on-a 380A reached 302 miles (485 kilometers) an hour, a world speed record for a production train. After this triumph, when Liu announced to reporters that the country would soon have trains routinely running at more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) an hour, the Chinese press began calling him Mad Liu.
中国高铁车队中最值得骄傲的是380A，这是运行时速350公里，最高时速415公里的全国产列车。在2010年的试跑中，刘跨越在380A上激励着司机冲过时速485公里，这是量产列车的世界纪录。这场大捷之后，老刘对记者宣称中国将很快有列车经常以300英里（482公里）以上的时速飞奔，中国媒体惊呼其为刘疯子。
The moniker was only partly in jest; it also reflected skepticism. From the outset, all the high-speed technology was imported from engineering giants such as Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, Germany's Siemens AG, and France's Alstom SA. It strained credulity that China could develop such advanced machinery on its own in just a few years, and even before the Wenzhou crash, many wondered if China was simply copying poorly understood foreign technology.
这一外号不仅仅是玩笑，它还反映了人们的质疑。从一开始，所有的高铁技术均从行业巨人日本川崎重工、德国西门子、法国阿尔斯通等进口。人们不相信中国能在短短几年内自行发展出如此先进的机械设备，即使在温州追尾前，许多人怀疑中国是否直接抄袭了并不熟悉的外国技术。
The managers of the 380A factory, who work for Qingdao Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Company, vehemently deny this. The Sifang factory—on a 330-acre (133-hectare) site with computerized labs, utilitarian sheds, and a test track—employs 8,000 people, including a thousand directly involved in making the 380A. Unlike many other Chinese factories I've visited, it's clean and modern, and workers wear safety goggles. The Sifang employees are a different breed from the gritty tunnel blasters in Hunan.
在生产380A的青岛四方里，经理人员强烈否认了这一说法。四方厂占地330英亩，拥有计算机化的实验室、工作间、试验轨道，雇员八千，其中有一千人直接参与380A研制。与我访问过的其它中国工厂不同，四方厂干净、现代，工人们佩戴护目镜。四方厂的员工与湖南开山隧道工有着天壤之别。
Sifang was founded by Germans in the early 1900s and developed what little railway engineering knowledge China had. The company has made some of China's most iconic trains, including the enormous steam-powered "Liberation" trains that were still in use as recently as 1992. During the Cold War years, Sifang's engineers went to Africa to build railways and project China's diplomatic power. Sifang also designed the high-altitude trains on the new line to Lhasa, which are being exported to Peru.
四方厂由德国人在20世纪初建立，开发出中国仅有的一点铁路技术。这家公司曾生产出中国最具代表性的火车，其中包括沿用至1992年的巨型＂解放＂蒸汽机车。冷战期间，四方工程师远赴非洲修建铁路，为中国投射外交力量。四方还设计出用于青藏铁路的高原列车，并出口秘鲁。
The factory's managers say that although their core technology was imported from Japan and Germany, Sifang merely "digested" it. The idea was to purchase technology legally, improve on it, and repatent it, making it a Chinese product. "Some technology and equipment is Western, as you can see," says Wang Hongmei, who's in charge of factory production. "But much of the core technology is Chinese."
四方经理人员表示，虽然他们的核心技术从日德引进，但四方已＂吸收＂了这些技术。他们的思路是合法地购买技术、改进之、再申请专利，使之成为中国产品。主管四方生产的王红梅（Wang Hongmei）表示：＂正如你所看到的，一些技术和设备来自西方，但很多核心技术是中国的。＂
That practice is by no means uniquely Chinese: After World War II, Japan's high-tech ascent was based initially on reverse-engineering U.S. and West German technology and then patenting the marginally different Japanese products. But China has started from a much lower technological and educational base than Japan, making its claimed accomplishments seem extraordinary.
这一作法并非中国独有，二战后，日本的高技术腾飞最初建立在对美国及西德技术的＂逆向工程＂之上，然后对稍许不同的日本产品申请专利。但在技术和教育程度上，中国的起步要比日本低得多，其号称的成就则显得极为惊人。
I asked Wu Qunliang, Sifang's chief spokesperson, how his factory could say that the 380A was a Chinese product. Its needle-nose design looks almost exactly like a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train, while the interior strongly resembles a German high-speed train. Wasn't this just sophisticated pirating?
我询问四方首席发言人Wu Qunliang：四方如何能将380A称为中国产品？它尖尖的头型与日本新干线的子弹头几乎一模一样，而内饰与德国高铁列车极其相似。这难道不是高级的盗版吗？
"Foreigners like to think this because they don't think Chinese can make advanced technology," he said. "Let me show you something."
吴说：＂外国人喜欢这样想是因为他们总以为中国人造不出高技术的东西。让我给你看看一些东西。＂
Wu took me to a small museum in the factory. Behind a glass case was a contract signed by Sifang and China's most important scientific agencies, pledging to work together to build China's own high-speed trains. Like the country's space program or its efforts to build an aircraft carrier, Wu explained, high-speed rail wasn't just another industry-it was a national priority. None of the technology was stolen, he said emphatically.
吴把我领到厂里的一间小博物馆。玻璃橱窗后是四方与中国最重要的数家科研单位签订的合同，合同各方保证将通力合作打造中国自己的高铁列车。吴解释到，正如中国的航天计划和航母研制，高铁不仅仅是另一项产业，它是中国的重点工程。他强调，没有一项技术是偷来的。
"We couldn't do this on our own, that's true," he said of Sifang. "But we had the science ministry involved and their expertise. It's the result of a long-standing national effort."
他表示：＂四方无法独立做到这一点，但我们有科技部的支持，这是举国长期努力的结晶。＂
Train Safety in Question?
车辆安全？
The 380A fit into Minister Liu's belief that China could "leapfrog" Western countries—an idea espoused fervently by communist China's first leader, Mao Zedong. Mao was convinced that with enough fervor China could bound ahead, leaving the details to be worked out later.
刘部长相信中国可以蛙跳式跨越西方国家，380A与此相符——中共开国领袖毛泽东曾热切地提倡这一思想。毛坚信足够的热情能够让中国领先，至于细节问题可以过后解决。
But throughout 2011, even China's state-controlled media began to question the high-speed rail program's safety. Blasting tunnels, laying track, and bending metal into sleek trains was one thing, but operating a coherent—and safe—system was another. Shortly after the Beijing-Shanghai line opened in June a series of signal problems caused delays, and the top speed for trains was reduced from 210 miles (338 kilometers) an hour to 180 miles (290 kilometers) an hour.
但在2011年，即使是官方控制的媒体也开始质疑高铁项目的安全性。开山、铺轨、将板材压制成流线型车身是一回事，运营一个完整安全的系统则是另一回事。京沪高铁在当年六月开通不久，一系列信号问题就造成延误，最高时速也从338公里降到290公里。
By then, Liu had already resigned on the corruption charges. Chinese media, citing unnamed sources, says he channeled contracts to a mistress who ran a company that made rail signals. A report in a major Chinese business magazine said the woman also provided him with other girlfriends.
那时，刘也已因贪腐指控辞职。中国媒体援引不具名人士称，刘将生产信号的合同交给其情妇的公司。中国一份主要财经杂志报道称该情妇还向刘提供其他一些女人。
When I went back to Hunan last summer to see tunnel manager Qian Shengmu, he said that the ministry had put blasting on hold. "There's a new emphasis on quality. They want us to take more time."
去年夏天，当我重返湖南探望隧道经理钱生睦时，他表示铁道路已暂停该项目。＂他们重新强调工程质量，要求我们放慢进度。＂
From Qian's construction site he could see several other tunnels, each run by separate companies. The fragmentation was meant to foster competition, but it was wasteful. Each company had equipment and staff that it only needed once every few days—dump trucks to carry the rubble down the hill, technical staff who measure out the dynamite.
从钱的工地，他可看到其它的几个隧道，每个都由不同的公司承包。分散发包原本是为了鼓励竞争，但却很浪费。每个公司都有隔几天才用一次的设备和员工，如将碎石运送下山的汽车、分配炸药量的技术员等。
The system did, however, ensure that ministry officials were assiduously wined and dined by dozens of small bosses. Indeed, much of Qian's time was spent on the road, tracking down the petty officials who dole out contracts. When I mentioned Minister Liu's troubles, Qian laughed.
这一体制却保证了铁道部官员被大小几十个老板团团围住，吃喝不断。的确，钱老板大部分的时间都花在路上，追逐着分配合同的芝麻官们。当我提起刘的麻烦，钱老板笑了。
"We have to cultivate a lot of relations with officials," he said. "How else do you get deals?"
＂我们得培养与官员的关系，不然合同怎么来？＂
Shortly after I visited Qian, a bullet train from Beijing barreled into another high-speed train that had lost power during a lightning storm outside the coastal city of Wenzhou. Four cars plunged 65 feet (20 meters) from a viaduct to the vegetable fields below. Forty people died, and 192 were injured.
我采访钱之后不久，来自北京的子弹头列车高速撞向另一列因雷暴天气在温州站外趴窝的列车。四节车厢从20米高的桥上跌落到下边的菜地。40人丧生，192人受伤。
Accidents are common in China, but coming after Minister Liu's resignation, it caused an uproar on China's lively microblogging scene. Somehow-maybe because it came after 30 years of pell-mell development—the disaster seems to have grown in significance, with time, becoming lodged in the national psyche as "7-2-3," after the date of the accident, July 23.
中国的事故很普遍，但这场在刘部下台之后发生的事故则在中国生机勃勃的微博空间引发了一场海啸。或许是因为它发生在30年无序发展之后，总之这场事故的意义似乎日长夜大，成为打在中国神经上的烙印＂723＂——事故发生的日期，7月23日。
Crash Survivors Remain Angry
追尾幸存者依然愤怒
这一节不愿翻了，心烦，总之是历数高阻干的操蛋事，挖坑埋车头、禁止律师介入、赔偿标准低、信息不透明、官方态度倨傲等等。俺要再次高喊高阻去吃S…
"It Used to be a Golden Age"
＂曾经的黄金岁月＂
I often wondered whether the push for high-speed rails was meant to serve the people or the state. Riding from Beijing to Shanghai, the experience seems as good as any I'd had in Europe, and possibly even better, given the greater distances. Yes, the finish and the details look cheap compared to German or French trains, and the food is atrocious.
我经常在想，努力建设高铁是为人民服务还是为国家服务。从北京到上海，感觉和在欧洲乘高铁一样好，甚至可能更好些，毕竟旅途更长。诚然，与德法列车比起来，中国的做工和细节均显廉价，食品更是巨恶。
But the trains average 180 miles (290 kilometers) an hour. You rip through the countryside, stopping only twice before pulling into Shanghai's new Hongqiao station on time. As for the price, second class is $90, cheaper than all but the deepest discounted airline ticket, and the total travel time is only about an hour longer than by plane, once you factor in getting out to the airport, going through security, and so on.
但列车以290公里的旅速在乡间飞奔，仅停靠两站即准点驶入上海新虹桥站。二等座价格为90美元，比除了折扣最低的机票便宜，考虑到进出机场和安检等因素，总体旅途费时仅比飞机多一小时。
The trains run every hour, providing what is essentially a commuter service between China's two greatest cities. Yet what lies between are vast, forgotten swaths of the country where most people live. They are served at best by slow, overcrowded trains. I experienced one going from Beijing to Datong, a city I first visited in 1984. The 200-mile (320-kilometer) run takes six hours-merely two hours faster than nearly 30 years before.
列车每小时发一班，几乎成了中国两大都市的通勤车。但两座城市之间是大多数人生活的、被遗忘的广袤区域。这些地区最多能指望一些拥挤的低速火车。（我翻到这里要崩溃了）我乘过北京到大同的火车，320公里的路程跑了6个小时，只比30年前快了两小时。
On a trip earlier this year, my train was crammed and filthy. The poorly designed ventilation system sucked fumes from the diesel locomotive straight into the wagons, and when we were barely out of Beijing, a sticky mix of water and urine already coated the toilet floor. But it was cheap: eight dollars for a second-class seat.
在今年早些时候的这次旅行中，我乘坐的火车又拥又脏。设计糟糕的通风系统直接从柴油机车里吸气然后送往客车厢。刚出京城，厕所地板就已覆上一层粘粘的尿水混合物。但票价便宜，二等票八美元。
Perhaps the hundreds of billions already spent on high-speed railways might have been more effectively spent upgrading the entire network-enhancing overall mobility and helping reduce tensions between rich and poor. Yet China's technocratic leaders have a deep belief that elites should lead the way, and high-speed rail is their vision for the future.
也许花在高铁上的数千亿美元可以更高效地用于升级整个网络，提升整体运作效率并减轻贫富矛盾。但中国的技术型领导人深信精英阶层应起到带头作用，而高铁则是他们对未来的构想。
And in some ways, perhaps they are right. A recent report says that on many key high-speed lines, fares are covering debt costs, confounding skeptics who said high-speed trains were purely prestige projects. During my last visit with Qian Shengmu, I joined him in the southern city of Fuzhou, where he was finishing up a mile-long (1.6-kilometer-long) tunnel, part of another high-speed line that would link the mountain-enclosed port of six million with the interior. His tunnel in Hunan was under construction again, the ministry having released some money. I asked Qian about the future of the program.
在某些方面，他们或许是正确的。最近一项报告显示，在许多主要高铁线上，票价收入已可覆盖贷款成本，令那些将高铁斥为面子工程的质疑者目瞪口呆。我最近一次采访钱生睦是在福州，他正给一条一英里长的隧道作收尾工作。该隧道是一条新高铁的组成部分，这条高铁将这座拥有六百万人口、被群山环绕的港口城市与内陆连接起来。他在湖南的隧道已经复工，部里拨了一些款。我问钱老板那项工程的前景。
"It used to be a golden age," he said. "The ministry had so much money and the emphasis was build, build, build. Speed. Now there's criticism. But they will finish this. They have to. They started this so they have to finish it."
他说：＂曾经的黄金年代啊，部里原来是那么有钱，总是强调建、建、建。速度。现在有那么多批评。但他们会完工，他们没有选择，开弓没有回头箭。＂
Ian Johnson is a Beijing-based writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of China. He is now writing a book about China's search for spiritual values and spends several months a year traveling around the country, mostly by rail.
作者介绍：Ian Johnson是驻北京记者，曾因报道中国获得普利策奖。他正在写一部关于中国寻找精神价值的书。每年他总有几个月周游中国，大多是坐火车。美国国家地理杂志http://news.nationalgeographic.c ... ansportation-world/
China Advances High-Speed Rail Amid Safety, Corruption Concerns
中国高铁在安全与腐败的质疑声中前行
Photograph by Michael Yamashita, National Geographic
Despite popularity of high-speed trains (pictured, passengers enroute to Zhengzhou), many are worried about safety and charges of corruption.
配图是发往郑州某普铁客车内景：高铁虽火，很多人还是很担心安全和腐败问题
Ye Shaoguang sits in his mud-and-brick home, waiting for the next explosion. It's June, and his living room is filled with the bounty of rural Hunan: freshly plucked bayberries and ceramic jars of fresh honey from his bee colony. He ladles dark yellow syrup into a bowl. "Eat it," he says. "It's wild honey, like nothing you'll get in the cities." (Related pictures: "Chinese High-Speed Rail in Focus.")
叶少光（Ye Shaoguang）在泥砖砌成的家中，坐等下一轮爆炸。时值六月，客厅里堆满了湖南农家的珍宝：新摘的山桃和盛满新鲜蜂蜜的瓦罐。他将暗黄色的糖浆舀入碗中，招呼到：＂尝尝，这可是野生蜂蜜，城里可找不到。＂
Beyond Ye's front yard is a rice field, and beyond that, a gaping hole in the side of the valley: a tunnel being blasted through the mountains. When completed next year, the Zhangjiashi tunnel will allow trains to race 200 miles (320 kilometers) an hour between the southern metropolis of Kunming and the financial hub of Shanghai.
叶家的前院是一片稻田，再远处的山侧则豁然洞开：山体内正爆破开凿一条隧道。明年完工后，沪昆高铁列车将以320公里的时速在Zhangjiashi隧道内飞驰。
The project symbolizes China's 21st-century aspirations: High-speed trains are a national priority for China, with 10,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) of lines due to link 24 cities by 2020. Since the program got under way in 2007, half of the lines have been built, with another major north-south artery the length of the country set to open later this year. It's an engineering blitzkrieg meant to awe the Chinese people and show off the nation's new industrial might.
这一工程是中国21世纪梦想的象征：在中国，高铁是全国重心，预计2020年之前，将有一万英里的线路连接24座城市。自该工程于2007年启动后，计划中一半的里程已然建成，另有一条纵贯中国南北的干线将于今年晚些时候开通。这是一场旨在震撼中国民众、炫耀国家工业实力的工程奇袭。
Less impressive have been the costs—financial and human. Last year two events happened that continue to shake the railway system and China as a whole. One was the detention of China's once powerful railway minister, Liu Zhijun, an old-style communist central planner who rolled out the high-speed network like a general using human-wave tactics.
然而工程的代价却不这么出彩，其中包括财政和人身代价。去年发生的两个事件仍继续震动着铁路系统乃至整个中国。其一，盛极一时的铁道部长刘跨越被捕，他是一位老式共产中央计划者，如同使用人海战术的将军一样推进高铁网络。
Thousands of work teams were deployed to blast open mountains, bridge gullies, and pave over the countryside. But investigations show that Liu's methods were based on massive corruption, and he himself is accused of graft and "sexual misconduct."
数以千计的工程队伍被派往各地开山、架桥、铺轨。但调查显示刘的方法乃建立于大规模贪腐之上，而他本人也被控以贪污与生活不轨。
The other event that has caused a broader rethink of China's development path was a terrifying crash of two high-speed trains last year near the city of Wenzhou. The crash has come to symbolize the ruling Communist Party's development-at-all-costs strategy. One commentator said on national television that China was "leaving the souls of the people behind." As one crash survivor told me: "Where is happiness? Is it only in statistics and numbers?"
另一大事件则引发了关于中国发展路线的更广泛的思考：骇人的温州高铁追尾。这场事故象征着当权共党不惜代价的发展思路。一位评论员在全国电视上说：＂等等人民的灵魂。＂一位事故幸存者告诉我：＂幸福在哪里？难道只在统计数据里？＂
One upshot of these scandals is that the ministry—which has been run since the People's Republic's founding in 1949 as a quasi-military fiefdom, with its own courts and police force—may lose its independent status and be subsumed by the Ministry of Transport. That could happen as soon as the Communist Party's 18th Congress, slated to start November 8.
这些丑闻亦有积极的一面：铁道部这一拥有法院与警察的、自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来即以半军事化管理的小天地或将失去独立地位，从而并入交通部，而这一切最快有可能在十一月八日开幕的十八大上实现。
"This Shows We Are a Great Country"
＂这说明我们是一个伟大的国家＂
These tensions are on display at the emerging Zhangjiashi tunnel here in the Hunanese countryside. The construction methods are traditional: The 60 workers bore holes into the mountainside with long, thin drills, insert sticks of dynamite, and clear the rubble by hand. Blast by blast, they extend the tunnel about a yard each day. It's slow, exacting work, but they have a chance to earn $600 a month, five times what they make as farmers.
在湖南Zhangjiashi隧道项目上，中国铁路的种种矛盾展露无遗。建筑方法颇为传统：六十名工人在岩壁上钻出深孔、填入炸药、人工清理碎石。一轮轮爆破，每日推进约一米。这是一项缓慢、高要求的工作，但工人们每月可挣得600美元，相当于农民收入的五倍。
The tunnel manager is a wily businessman named Qian Shengmu, who has no formal education and learned his trade by trial and error over the past 25 years.
工程经理钱生睦（Qian Shengmu）是一名精明的商人，他没受过正规教育，在过去25年的摸爬滚打中熟悉这一行当。
He gets financing from loan sharks, and the high interest rates they charge—upward of 60 percent—mean that he's always pushing his men to hurry up and finish. Deals, he says matter-of-factly, are secured through bribes.
他通过地下钱庄获得贷款，高利率（甚至达到60%）迫使其不断地催促手下早日完工。他一本正经地说到合同是通过行贿获得的。
Old Mr. Ye and his family have strong opinions about the push for high-speed trains. "Of course it's good," Ye says. "It's a sign that China is rich." His mother-in-law disagrees. "It will crack our walls! Who will buy us a new house when ours collapses from the vibrations?"
老叶一家对高铁的建设各有不同主张，老叶本人认为高铁甚好，乃国家富裕的象征。而他的丈母娘则不同意：＂家里房子会被震裂！房子震塌了谁给我们买新的？＂
Ye would never ride on a bullet train-he can hardly afford the slow train to the provincial capital, Changsha, a 75-mile (120-kilometer) ride away. But he prides himself on thinking strategically. "This is a national issue," he says with finality. "This shows we are a great country."
老叶从未坐过高铁，到省会长沙（距离120公里）的普铁票都令他感到吃力。但他对自己的战略思维颇为自豪，他决然地说：＂这可是国家大事，显示我们是一个强国。＂
A few moments later the mountainside rumbles, and the house shakes. An angry murmur emanates from the hives on the front stoop, and bees swarm out in the heavy afternoon air, threatening to attack. They fly off, and quiet returns. "You see," Ye says triumphantly. "Nothing collapsed."
片刻之后，山里传来闷响，房子震动。蜂巢里一阵愤怒的嗡嗡，群蜂在午后闷热的空气中出动，架势狰狞。它们飞走了，而后静静地归巢。老叶得意地说：＂您瞧，啥都没倒。＂
Few countries have such a vexed relationship with railways as China. When the first line was laid in 1876, many Chinese worried that the steel bands would disrupt the flow of chi, or life energy, which, according to ancient belief, is channeled through mountains and valleys, people, and animals.
天下少有像中国那样与铁路有着如此纠结的关系。当第一条铁路在1876年铺下时，许多中国人担心铁轨会搅乱＂气＂流，或称生命能量，根据传统理论，气在人体、天地万物、飞鸟走兽中穿行。
Pragmatists fretted that in an already overpopulated country the rails would add to unemployment by supplanting boatmen and coolies. As one official put it to a United States visitor in the late 19th century: "They bring in foreigners whom I do not like, and they throw men out of work."
实用主义者则担忧铁路将在人口过剩的国家里取代船工和苦力，从而加剧失业。正如19世纪末一位官员向美国到访者所说：＂火车输入吾本不喜之外国人，并抢去中国人的饭碗。＂
How China's Rail System Developed
中国的铁路系统是如何发展的
In 1911 the imperial government conceded that China needed a railway system and announced that it would nationalize and expand the network. Because the government was near bankruptcy, it was decided to allow foreigners to buy equity stakes, effectively giving them ownership.
1911年，清庭承认中国需要铁路系统并宣布将国有化和扩大铁路网。因政府濒临破产，所以它允许外国人执股，事实上将铁路所有权拱手相让。
Patriots were outraged and formed the Railway League to oppose foreign takeover. Many government troops joined the league. Later that year the soldiers mutinied, and the child emperor Puyi abdicated, ending 2,000 years of imperial rule.
爱国者极为愤怒，组成护路团阻止外国并购。许多政府军队皆加入其中。当年，军队哗变，幼帝溥仪退位，二千多年的封建统治告终。
When the Communists took power in 1949, China still had a small, fragmented rail system—less than half the mileage the British left India in 1947. Half the lines were in the northeast, which Japan had colonized and developed, and most of the rest ran down the eastern seaboard.
共产党于49年上台之时，中国仅有一个小型、零碎的铁路系统，不足1947年英国留在印度的铁路里程的一半。全路一半里程集中在东北日占区，余下大部分位于东部沿海。
The early Communist leaders were unenthusiastic railway builders, but they left a lasting legacy: The railway under Chairman Mao became a quasi-military operation. The Ministry of Railways, headquartered across the street from the Ministry of Defense, emerged as one of China's most powerful bureaus. Its construction branch was called the tiedaobing, or "railway soldiers."
共产党早期领导人并不热衷于铁路建设，但他们留下了一笔长期遗产：铁路在毛主席的手下成为一项半军事化事业。与国防部一街之隔的铁道部成为中国最强大的部门之一，它的建设队伍被称为＂铁道兵＂。
One line was pushed out west to link the restive province of Xinjiang, which was also home to the Lop Nor nuclear testing facility. In a feat of engineering, another line was punched from the inland city of Chengdu through the mountains to Kunming, not far from the border with then North Vietnam, China's ally engaged in a war with the U.S. More than 2,100 workers died building this line, and many were declared national martyrs for their sacrifice.
一条线路通往中国西部动荡省份新疆，这是罗布泊核试验设施的所在地。另一项工程绝技则是穿越千山万水的、连接腹地城市成都与离北越不远的昆明的铁路，中国与北越在越战中乃同盟。超过2100名工人在建设成昆铁路时丧生，因为他们付出的牺牲，许多工人被追认为全国烈士。
Despite these heroic efforts, during the communists' first 30 years in power the number of rail miles only doubled, to 30,000. By the year 2000, China had 42,000 miles (67,000 kilometers) of track—about a third as much as the U.S. That's when Beijing made railway building a national priority. Within a decade the total mileage had risen to 56,500, and it is planned to reach 75,000 by 2015. Rails are transforming China's mental geography.
尽管付出了英勇努力，建国三十年后中国铁路里程仅仅翻番，达到三万英里。到2000年，中国拥有四万二千英里（6万7千公里）铁路，约为美国的三分之一。从此，北京将铁路建设列为全国重点。十年时间里，铁路里程达到56500英里，计划将于2015达到75000英里。铁路正改变中国心理上地理。
Cities that in the past seemed hopelessly remote or only reachable by infrequent flights are now a couple of hours away. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line, which opened in 2011, cut travel time from 12 hours to less than 5. (That's the distance from Philadelphia to Atlanta, which takes 16 hours by Amtrak.)
过去那些穷乡僻壤或仅有数趟航班可及的地方，如今不过仅隔几小时。2011年开通的京沪高铁将旅程从12小时压缩短到不足5小时。（相当于费城到亚特兰大的距离，乘Amtrak需16小时。）
High-speed service is no less transformative on short stretches, as I discovered going from the poor mountain town of Hengshan in Hunan to the provincial capital of Changsha. The tracks ran as straight as the crow flies, with mountains, villages, and marshes all yielding to the railway ministry's might. I sat next to a farmer who was traveling to visit his daughter in Changsha.
高铁对于短途旅行也同样是变革性的，我在从湖南衡山到长沙的路上深有体会。这条高铁如空中航线般笔直，在祟山峻岭、村庄、滩涂间穿行，一马平川，势不可拦。我坐在一名前往长沙探望女儿的农民身边。
"It used to be so bitter to make this trip," he said as we whooshed out of the last tunnel at 150 miles (240 kilometers) an hour and entered the flatlands. "Now we've already arrived." The 85-mile (135-kilometer) trip used to take 4 hours; we did it in 35 minutes. The link is helping Hengshan boom, with apartments and shops opening for new residents who commute to Changsha. (See pictures of China's cities.)
当我们以240公里的时速冲出最后一个隧道、进入平原时，他说：＂过去走这条路真是辛苦，现在我们就到了。＂以前，这段135公里的路程费时4小时，现在仅需35分钟。这条高铁推动衡山快速发展，面向长沙、衡山两地通勤人士的公寓楼和商店逐渐开张。
Inside China's Train Factories
走进中国的列车工厂
The pride of China's high-speed rail fleet is the 380A model, an all-Chinese manufactured train capable of cruising at 217 miles (350 kilometers) an hour, with a top working speed of 258 miles (415 kilometers) an hour. In a test run in 2010—with Railway Minister Liu cheering the driver on-a 380A reached 302 miles (485 kilometers) an hour, a world speed record for a production train. After this triumph, when Liu announced to reporters that the country would soon have trains routinely running at more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) an hour, the Chinese press began calling him Mad Liu.
中国高铁车队中最值得骄傲的是380A，这是运行时速350公里，最高时速415公里的全国产列车。在2010年的试跑中，刘跨越在380A上激励着司机冲过时速485公里，这是量产列车的世界纪录。这场大捷之后，老刘对记者宣称中国将很快有列车经常以300英里（482公里）以上的时速飞奔，中国媒体惊呼其为刘疯子。
The moniker was only partly in jest; it also reflected skepticism. From the outset, all the high-speed technology was imported from engineering giants such as Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, Germany's Siemens AG, and France's Alstom SA. It strained credulity that China could develop such advanced machinery on its own in just a few years, and even before the Wenzhou crash, many wondered if China was simply copying poorly understood foreign technology.
这一外号不仅仅是玩笑，它还反映了人们的质疑。从一开始，所有的高铁技术均从行业巨人日本川崎重工、德国西门子、法国阿尔斯通等进口。人们不相信中国能在短短几年内自行发展出如此先进的机械设备，即使在温州追尾前，许多人怀疑中国是否直接抄袭了并不熟悉的外国技术。
The managers of the 380A factory, who work for Qingdao Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Company, vehemently deny this. The Sifang factory—on a 330-acre (133-hectare) site with computerized labs, utilitarian sheds, and a test track—employs 8,000 people, including a thousand directly involved in making the 380A. Unlike many other Chinese factories I've visited, it's clean and modern, and workers wear safety goggles. The Sifang employees are a different breed from the gritty tunnel blasters in Hunan.
在生产380A的青岛四方里，经理人员强烈否认了这一说法。四方厂占地330英亩，拥有计算机化的实验室、工作间、试验轨道，雇员八千，其中有一千人直接参与380A研制。与我访问过的其它中国工厂不同，四方厂干净、现代，工人们佩戴护目镜。四方厂的员工与湖南开山隧道工有着天壤之别。
Sifang was founded by Germans in the early 1900s and developed what little railway engineering knowledge China had. The company has made some of China's most iconic trains, including the enormous steam-powered "Liberation" trains that were still in use as recently as 1992. During the Cold War years, Sifang's engineers went to Africa to build railways and project China's diplomatic power. Sifang also designed the high-altitude trains on the new line to Lhasa, which are being exported to Peru.
四方厂由德国人在20世纪初建立，开发出中国仅有的一点铁路技术。这家公司曾生产出中国最具代表性的火车，其中包括沿用至1992年的巨型＂解放＂蒸汽机车。冷战期间，四方工程师远赴非洲修建铁路，为中国投射外交力量。四方还设计出用于青藏铁路的高原列车，并出口秘鲁。
The factory's managers say that although their core technology was imported from Japan and Germany, Sifang merely "digested" it. The idea was to purchase technology legally, improve on it, and repatent it, making it a Chinese product. "Some technology and equipment is Western, as you can see," says Wang Hongmei, who's in charge of factory production. "But much of the core technology is Chinese."
四方经理人员表示，虽然他们的核心技术从日德引进，但四方已＂吸收＂了这些技术。他们的思路是合法地购买技术、改进之、再申请专利，使之成为中国产品。主管四方生产的王红梅（Wang Hongmei）表示：＂正如你所看到的，一些技术和设备来自西方，但很多核心技术是中国的。＂
That practice is by no means uniquely Chinese: After World War II, Japan's high-tech ascent was based initially on reverse-engineering U.S. and West German technology and then patenting the marginally different Japanese products. But China has started from a much lower technological and educational base than Japan, making its claimed accomplishments seem extraordinary.
这一作法并非中国独有，二战后，日本的高技术腾飞最初建立在对美国及西德技术的＂逆向工程＂之上，然后对稍许不同的日本产品申请专利。但在技术和教育程度上，中国的起步要比日本低得多，其号称的成就则显得极为惊人。
I asked Wu Qunliang, Sifang's chief spokesperson, how his factory could say that the 380A was a Chinese product. Its needle-nose design looks almost exactly like a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train, while the interior strongly resembles a German high-speed train. Wasn't this just sophisticated pirating?
我询问四方首席发言人Wu Qunliang：四方如何能将380A称为中国产品？它尖尖的头型与日本新干线的子弹头几乎一模一样，而内饰与德国高铁列车极其相似。这难道不是高级的盗版吗？
"Foreigners like to think this because they don't think Chinese can make advanced technology," he said. "Let me show you something."
吴说：＂外国人喜欢这样想是因为他们总以为中国人造不出高技术的东西。让我给你看看一些东西。＂
Wu took me to a small museum in the factory. Behind a glass case was a contract signed by Sifang and China's most important scientific agencies, pledging to work together to build China's own high-speed trains. Like the country's space program or its efforts to build an aircraft carrier, Wu explained, high-speed rail wasn't just another industry-it was a national priority. None of the technology was stolen, he said emphatically.
吴把我领到厂里的一间小博物馆。玻璃橱窗后是四方与中国最重要的数家科研单位签订的合同，合同各方保证将通力合作打造中国自己的高铁列车。吴解释到，正如中国的航天计划和航母研制，高铁不仅仅是另一项产业，它是中国的重点工程。他强调，没有一项技术是偷来的。
"We couldn't do this on our own, that's true," he said of Sifang. "But we had the science ministry involved and their expertise. It's the result of a long-standing national effort."
他表示：＂四方无法独立做到这一点，但我们有科技部的支持，这是举国长期努力的结晶。＂
Train Safety in Question?
车辆安全？
The 380A fit into Minister Liu's belief that China could "leapfrog" Western countries—an idea espoused fervently by communist China's first leader, Mao Zedong. Mao was convinced that with enough fervor China could bound ahead, leaving the details to be worked out later.
刘部长相信中国可以蛙跳式跨越西方国家，380A与此相符——中共开国领袖毛泽东曾热切地提倡这一思想。毛坚信足够的热情能够让中国领先，至于细节问题可以过后解决。
But throughout 2011, even China's state-controlled media began to question the high-speed rail program's safety. Blasting tunnels, laying track, and bending metal into sleek trains was one thing, but operating a coherent—and safe—system was another. Shortly after the Beijing-Shanghai line opened in June a series of signal problems caused delays, and the top speed for trains was reduced from 210 miles (338 kilometers) an hour to 180 miles (290 kilometers) an hour.
但在2011年，即使是官方控制的媒体也开始质疑高铁项目的安全性。开山、铺轨、将板材压制成流线型车身是一回事，运营一个完整安全的系统则是另一回事。京沪高铁在当年六月开通不久，一系列信号问题就造成延误，最高时速也从338公里降到290公里。
By then, Liu had already resigned on the corruption charges. Chinese media, citing unnamed sources, says he channeled contracts to a mistress who ran a company that made rail signals. A report in a major Chinese business magazine said the woman also provided him with other girlfriends.
那时，刘也已因贪腐指控辞职。中国媒体援引不具名人士称，刘将生产信号的合同交给其情妇的公司。中国一份主要财经杂志报道称该情妇还向刘提供其他一些女人。
When I went back to Hunan last summer to see tunnel manager Qian Shengmu, he said that the ministry had put blasting on hold. "There's a new emphasis on quality. They want us to take more time."
去年夏天，当我重返湖南探望隧道经理钱生睦时，他表示铁道路已暂停该项目。＂他们重新强调工程质量，要求我们放慢进度。＂
From Qian's construction site he could see several other tunnels, each run by separate companies. The fragmentation was meant to foster competition, but it was wasteful. Each company had equipment and staff that it only needed once every few days—dump trucks to carry the rubble down the hill, technical staff who measure out the dynamite.
从钱的工地，他可看到其它的几个隧道，每个都由不同的公司承包。分散发包原本是为了鼓励竞争，但却很浪费。每个公司都有隔几天才用一次的设备和员工，如将碎石运送下山的汽车、分配炸药量的技术员等。
The system did, however, ensure that ministry officials were assiduously wined and dined by dozens of small bosses. Indeed, much of Qian's time was spent on the road, tracking down the petty officials who dole out contracts. When I mentioned Minister Liu's troubles, Qian laughed.
这一体制却保证了铁道部官员被大小几十个老板团团围住，吃喝不断。的确，钱老板大部分的时间都花在路上，追逐着分配合同的芝麻官们。当我提起刘的麻烦，钱老板笑了。
"We have to cultivate a lot of relations with officials," he said. "How else do you get deals?"
＂我们得培养与官员的关系，不然合同怎么来？＂
Shortly after I visited Qian, a bullet train from Beijing barreled into another high-speed train that had lost power during a lightning storm outside the coastal city of Wenzhou. Four cars plunged 65 feet (20 meters) from a viaduct to the vegetable fields below. Forty people died, and 192 were injured.
我采访钱之后不久，来自北京的子弹头列车高速撞向另一列因雷暴天气在温州站外趴窝的列车。四节车厢从20米高的桥上跌落到下边的菜地。40人丧生，192人受伤。
Accidents are common in China, but coming after Minister Liu's resignation, it caused an uproar on China's lively microblogging scene. Somehow-maybe because it came after 30 years of pell-mell development—the disaster seems to have grown in significance, with time, becoming lodged in the national psyche as "7-2-3," after the date of the accident, July 23.
中国的事故很普遍，但这场在刘部下台之后发生的事故则在中国生机勃勃的微博空间引发了一场海啸。或许是因为它发生在30年无序发展之后，总之这场事故的意义似乎日长夜大，成为打在中国神经上的烙印＂723＂——事故发生的日期，7月23日。
Crash Survivors Remain Angry
追尾幸存者依然愤怒
这一节不愿翻了，心烦，总之是历数高阻干的操蛋事，挖坑埋车头、禁止律师介入、赔偿标准低、信息不透明、官方态度倨傲等等。俺要再次高喊高阻去吃S…
"It Used to be a Golden Age"
＂曾经的黄金岁月＂
I often wondered whether the push for high-speed rails was meant to serve the people or the state. Riding from Beijing to Shanghai, the experience seems as good as any I'd had in Europe, and possibly even better, given the greater distances. Yes, the finish and the details look cheap compared to German or French trains, and the food is atrocious.
我经常在想，努力建设高铁是为人民服务还是为国家服务。从北京到上海，感觉和在欧洲乘高铁一样好，甚至可能更好些，毕竟旅途更长。诚然，与德法列车比起来，中国的做工和细节均显廉价，食品更是巨恶。
But the trains average 180 miles (290 kilometers) an hour. You rip through the countryside, stopping only twice before pulling into Shanghai's new Hongqiao station on time. As for the price, second class is $90, cheaper than all but the deepest discounted airline ticket, and the total travel time is only about an hour longer than by plane, once you factor in getting out to the airport, going through security, and so on.
但列车以290公里的旅速在乡间飞奔，仅停靠两站即准点驶入上海新虹桥站。二等座价格为90美元，比除了折扣最低的机票便宜，考虑到进出机场和安检等因素，总体旅途费时仅比飞机多一小时。
The trains run every hour, providing what is essentially a commuter service between China's two greatest cities. Yet what lies between are vast, forgotten swaths of the country where most people live. They are served at best by slow, overcrowded trains. I experienced one going from Beijing to Datong, a city I first visited in 1984. The 200-mile (320-kilometer) run takes six hours-merely two hours faster than nearly 30 years before.
列车每小时发一班，几乎成了中国两大都市的通勤车。但两座城市之间是大多数人生活的、被遗忘的广袤区域。这些地区最多能指望一些拥挤的低速火车。（我翻到这里要崩溃了）我乘过北京到大同的火车，320公里的路程跑了6个小时，只比30年前快了两小时。
On a trip earlier this year, my train was crammed and filthy. The poorly designed ventilation system sucked fumes from the diesel locomotive straight into the wagons, and when we were barely out of Beijing, a sticky mix of water and urine already coated the toilet floor. But it was cheap: eight dollars for a second-class seat.
在今年早些时候的这次旅行中，我乘坐的火车又拥又脏。设计糟糕的通风系统直接从柴油机车里吸气然后送往客车厢。刚出京城，厕所地板就已覆上一层粘粘的尿水混合物。但票价便宜，二等票八美元。
Perhaps the hundreds of billions already spent on high-speed railways might have been more effectively spent upgrading the entire network-enhancing overall mobility and helping reduce tensions between rich and poor. Yet China's technocratic leaders have a deep belief that elites should lead the way, and high-speed rail is their vision for the future.
也许花在高铁上的数千亿美元可以更高效地用于升级整个网络，提升整体运作效率并减轻贫富矛盾。但中国的技术型领导人深信精英阶层应起到带头作用，而高铁则是他们对未来的构想。
And in some ways, perhaps they are right. A recent report says that on many key high-speed lines, fares are covering debt costs, confounding skeptics who said high-speed trains were purely prestige projects. During my last visit with Qian Shengmu, I joined him in the southern city of Fuzhou, where he was finishing up a mile-long (1.6-kilometer-long) tunnel, part of another high-speed line that would link the mountain-enclosed port of six million with the interior. His tunnel in Hunan was under construction again, the ministry having released some money. I asked Qian about the future of the program.
在某些方面，他们或许是正确的。最近一项报告显示，在许多主要高铁线上，票价收入已可覆盖贷款成本，令那些将高铁斥为面子工程的质疑者目瞪口呆。我最近一次采访钱生睦是在福州，他正给一条一英里长的隧道作收尾工作。该隧道是一条新高铁的组成部分，这条高铁将这座拥有六百万人口、被群山环绕的港口城市与内陆连接起来。他在湖南的隧道已经复工，部里拨了一些款。我问钱老板那项工程的前景。
"It used to be a golden age," he said. "The ministry had so much money and the emphasis was build, build, build. Speed. Now there's criticism. But they will finish this. They have to. They started this so they have to finish it."
他说：＂曾经的黄金年代啊，部里原来是那么有钱，总是强调建、建、建。速度。现在有那么多批评。但他们会完工，他们没有选择，开弓没有回头箭。＂
Ian Johnson is a Beijing-based writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of China. He is now writing a book about China's search for spiritual values and spends several months a year traveling around the country, mostly by rail.
作者介绍：Ian Johnson是驻北京记者，曾因报道中国获得普利策奖。他正在写一部关于中国寻找精神价值的书。每年他总有几个月周游中国，大多是坐火车。
China Advances High-Speed Rail Amid Safety, Corruption Concerns
中国高铁在安全与腐败的质疑声中前行
Photograph by Michael Yamashita, National Geographic
Despite popularity of high-speed trains (pictured, passengers enroute to Zhengzhou), many are worried about safety and charges of corruption.
配图是发往郑州某普铁客车内景：高铁虽火，很多人还是很担心安全和腐败问题
Ye Shaoguang sits in his mud-and-brick home, waiting for the next explosion. It's June, and his living room is filled with the bounty of rural Hunan: freshly plucked bayberries and ceramic jars of fresh honey from his bee colony. He ladles dark yellow syrup into a bowl. "Eat it," he says. "It's wild honey, like nothing you'll get in the cities." (Related pictures: "Chinese High-Speed Rail in Focus.")
叶少光（Ye Shaoguang）在泥砖砌成的家中，坐等下一轮爆炸。时值六月，客厅里堆满了湖南农家的珍宝：新摘的山桃和盛满新鲜蜂蜜的瓦罐。他将暗黄色的糖浆舀入碗中，招呼到：＂尝尝，这可是野生蜂蜜，城里可找不到。＂
Beyond Ye's front yard is a rice field, and beyond that, a gaping hole in the side of the valley: a tunnel being blasted through the mountains. When completed next year, the Zhangjiashi tunnel will allow trains to race 200 miles (320 kilometers) an hour between the southern metropolis of Kunming and the financial hub of Shanghai.
叶家的前院是一片稻田，再远处的山侧则豁然洞开：山体内正爆破开凿一条隧道。明年完工后，沪昆高铁列车将以320公里的时速在Zhangjiashi隧道内飞驰。
The project symbolizes China's 21st-century aspirations: High-speed trains are a national priority for China, with 10,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) of lines due to link 24 cities by 2020. Since the program got under way in 2007, half of the lines have been built, with another major north-south artery the length of the country set to open later this year. It's an engineering blitzkrieg meant to awe the Chinese people and show off the nation's new industrial might.
这一工程是中国21世纪梦想的象征：在中国，高铁是全国重心，预计2020年之前，将有一万英里的线路连接24座城市。自该工程于2007年启动后，计划中一半的里程已然建成，另有一条纵贯中国南北的干线将于今年晚些时候开通。这是一场旨在震撼中国民众、炫耀国家工业实力的工程奇袭。
Less impressive have been the costs—financial and human. Last year two events happened that continue to shake the railway system and China as a whole. One was the detention of China's once powerful railway minister, Liu Zhijun, an old-style communist central planner who rolled out the high-speed network like a general using human-wave tactics.
然而工程的代价却不这么出彩，其中包括财政和人身代价。去年发生的两个事件仍继续震动着铁路系统乃至整个中国。其一，盛极一时的铁道部长刘跨越被捕，他是一位老式共产中央计划者，如同使用人海战术的将军一样推进高铁网络。
Thousands of work teams were deployed to blast open mountains, bridge gullies, and pave over the countryside. But investigations show that Liu's methods were based on massive corruption, and he himself is accused of graft and "sexual misconduct."
数以千计的工程队伍被派往各地开山、架桥、铺轨。但调查显示刘的方法乃建立于大规模贪腐之上，而他本人也被控以贪污与生活不轨。
The other event that has caused a broader rethink of China's development path was a terrifying crash of two high-speed trains last year near the city of Wenzhou. The crash has come to symbolize the ruling Communist Party's development-at-all-costs strategy. One commentator said on national television that China was "leaving the souls of the people behind." As one crash survivor told me: "Where is happiness? Is it only in statistics and numbers?"
另一大事件则引发了关于中国发展路线的更广泛的思考：骇人的温州高铁追尾。这场事故象征着当权共党不惜代价的发展思路。一位评论员在全国电视上说：＂等等人民的灵魂。＂一位事故幸存者告诉我：＂幸福在哪里？难道只在统计数据里？＂
One upshot of these scandals is that the ministry—which has been run since the People's Republic's founding in 1949 as a quasi-military fiefdom, with its own courts and police force—may lose its independent status and be subsumed by the Ministry of Transport. That could happen as soon as the Communist Party's 18th Congress, slated to start November 8.
这些丑闻亦有积极的一面：铁道部这一拥有法院与警察的、自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来即以半军事化管理的小天地或将失去独立地位，从而并入交通部，而这一切最快有可能在十一月八日开幕的十八大上实现。
"This Shows We Are a Great Country"
＂这说明我们是一个伟大的国家＂
These tensions are on display at the emerging Zhangjiashi tunnel here in the Hunanese countryside. The construction methods are traditional: The 60 workers bore holes into the mountainside with long, thin drills, insert sticks of dynamite, and clear the rubble by hand. Blast by blast, they extend the tunnel about a yard each day. It's slow, exacting work, but they have a chance to earn $600 a month, five times what they make as farmers.
在湖南Zhangjiashi隧道项目上，中国铁路的种种矛盾展露无遗。建筑方法颇为传统：六十名工人在岩壁上钻出深孔、填入炸药、人工清理碎石。一轮轮爆破，每日推进约一米。这是一项缓慢、高要求的工作，但工人们每月可挣得600美元，相当于农民收入的五倍。
The tunnel manager is a wily businessman named Qian Shengmu, who has no formal education and learned his trade by trial and error over the past 25 years.
工程经理钱生睦（Qian Shengmu）是一名精明的商人，他没受过正规教育，在过去25年的摸爬滚打中熟悉这一行当。
He gets financing from loan sharks, and the high interest rates they charge—upward of 60 percent—mean that he's always pushing his men to hurry up and finish. Deals, he says matter-of-factly, are secured through bribes.
他通过地下钱庄获得贷款，高利率（甚至达到60%）迫使其不断地催促手下早日完工。他一本正经地说到合同是通过行贿获得的。
Old Mr. Ye and his family have strong opinions about the push for high-speed trains. "Of course it's good," Ye says. "It's a sign that China is rich." His mother-in-law disagrees. "It will crack our walls! Who will buy us a new house when ours collapses from the vibrations?"
老叶一家对高铁的建设各有不同主张，老叶本人认为高铁甚好，乃国家富裕的象征。而他的丈母娘则不同意：＂家里房子会被震裂！房子震塌了谁给我们买新的？＂
Ye would never ride on a bullet train-he can hardly afford the slow train to the provincial capital, Changsha, a 75-mile (120-kilometer) ride away. But he prides himself on thinking strategically. "This is a national issue," he says with finality. "This shows we are a great country."
老叶从未坐过高铁，到省会长沙（距离120公里）的普铁票都令他感到吃力。但他对自己的战略思维颇为自豪，他决然地说：＂这可是国家大事，显示我们是一个强国。＂
A few moments later the mountainside rumbles, and the house shakes. An angry murmur emanates from the hives on the front stoop, and bees swarm out in the heavy afternoon air, threatening to attack. They fly off, and quiet returns. "You see," Ye says triumphantly. "Nothing collapsed."
片刻之后，山里传来闷响，房子震动。蜂巢里一阵愤怒的嗡嗡，群蜂在午后闷热的空气中出动，架势狰狞。它们飞走了，而后静静地归巢。老叶得意地说：＂您瞧，啥都没倒。＂
Few countries have such a vexed relationship with railways as China. When the first line was laid in 1876, many Chinese worried that the steel bands would disrupt the flow of chi, or life energy, which, according to ancient belief, is channeled through mountains and valleys, people, and animals.
天下少有像中国那样与铁路有着如此纠结的关系。当第一条铁路在1876年铺下时，许多中国人担心铁轨会搅乱＂气＂流，或称生命能量，根据传统理论，气在人体、天地万物、飞鸟走兽中穿行。
Pragmatists fretted that in an already overpopulated country the rails would add to unemployment by supplanting boatmen and coolies. As one official put it to a United States visitor in the late 19th century: "They bring in foreigners whom I do not like, and they throw men out of work."
实用主义者则担忧铁路将在人口过剩的国家里取代船工和苦力，从而加剧失业。正如19世纪末一位官员向美国到访者所说：＂火车输入吾本不喜之外国人，并抢去中国人的饭碗。＂
How China's Rail System Developed
中国的铁路系统是如何发展的
In 1911 the imperial government conceded that China needed a railway system and announced that it would nationalize and expand the network. Because the government was near bankruptcy, it was decided to allow foreigners to buy equity stakes, effectively giving them ownership.
1911年，清庭承认中国需要铁路系统并宣布将国有化和扩大铁路网。因政府濒临破产，所以它允许外国人执股，事实上将铁路所有权拱手相让。
Patriots were outraged and formed the Railway League to oppose foreign takeover. Many government troops joined the league. Later that year the soldiers mutinied, and the child emperor Puyi abdicated, ending 2,000 years of imperial rule.
爱国者极为愤怒，组成护路团阻止外国并购。许多政府军队皆加入其中。当年，军队哗变，幼帝溥仪退位，二千多年的封建统治告终。
When the Communists took power in 1949, China still had a small, fragmented rail system—less than half the mileage the British left India in 1947. Half the lines were in the northeast, which Japan had colonized and developed, and most of the rest ran down the eastern seaboard.
共产党于49年上台之时，中国仅有一个小型、零碎的铁路系统，不足1947年英国留在印度的铁路里程的一半。全路一半里程集中在东北日占区，余下大部分位于东部沿海。
The early Communist leaders were unenthusiastic railway builders, but they left a lasting legacy: The railway under Chairman Mao became a quasi-military operation. The Ministry of Railways, headquartered across the street from the Ministry of Defense, emerged as one of China's most powerful bureaus. Its construction branch was called the tiedaobing, or "railway soldiers."
共产党早期领导人并不热衷于铁路建设，但他们留下了一笔长期遗产：铁路在毛主席的手下成为一项半军事化事业。与国防部一街之隔的铁道部成为中国最强大的部门之一，它的建设队伍被称为＂铁道兵＂。
One line was pushed out west to link the restive province of Xinjiang, which was also home to the Lop Nor nuclear testing facility. In a feat of engineering, another line was punched from the inland city of Chengdu through the mountains to Kunming, not far from the border with then North Vietnam, China's ally engaged in a war with the U.S. More than 2,100 workers died building this line, and many were declared national martyrs for their sacrifice.
一条线路通往中国西部动荡省份新疆，这是罗布泊核试验设施的所在地。另一项工程绝技则是穿越千山万水的、连接腹地城市成都与离北越不远的昆明的铁路，中国与北越在越战中乃同盟。超过2100名工人在建设成昆铁路时丧生，因为他们付出的牺牲，许多工人被追认为全国烈士。
Despite these heroic efforts, during the communists' first 30 years in power the number of rail miles only doubled, to 30,000. By the year 2000, China had 42,000 miles (67,000 kilometers) of track—about a third as much as the U.S. That's when Beijing made railway building a national priority. Within a decade the total mileage had risen to 56,500, and it is planned to reach 75,000 by 2015. Rails are transforming China's mental geography.
尽管付出了英勇努力，建国三十年后中国铁路里程仅仅翻番，达到三万英里。到2000年，中国拥有四万二千英里（6万7千公里）铁路，约为美国的三分之一。从此，北京将铁路建设列为全国重点。十年时间里，铁路里程达到56500英里，计划将于2015达到75000英里。铁路正改变中国心理上地理。
Cities that in the past seemed hopelessly remote or only reachable by infrequent flights are now a couple of hours away. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line, which opened in 2011, cut travel time from 12 hours to less than 5. (That's the distance from Philadelphia to Atlanta, which takes 16 hours by Amtrak.)
过去那些穷乡僻壤或仅有数趟航班可及的地方，如今不过仅隔几小时。2011年开通的京沪高铁将旅程从12小时压缩短到不足5小时。（相当于费城到亚特兰大的距离，乘Amtrak需16小时。）
High-speed service is no less transformative on short stretches, as I discovered going from the poor mountain town of Hengshan in Hunan to the provincial capital of Changsha. The tracks ran as straight as the crow flies, with mountains, villages, and marshes all yielding to the railway ministry's might. I sat next to a farmer who was traveling to visit his daughter in Changsha.
高铁对于短途旅行也同样是变革性的，我在从湖南衡山到长沙的路上深有体会。这条高铁如空中航线般笔直，在祟山峻岭、村庄、滩涂间穿行，一马平川，势不可拦。我坐在一名前往长沙探望女儿的农民身边。
"It used to be so bitter to make this trip," he said as we whooshed out of the last tunnel at 150 miles (240 kilometers) an hour and entered the flatlands. "Now we've already arrived." The 85-mile (135-kilometer) trip used to take 4 hours; we did it in 35 minutes. The link is helping Hengshan boom, with apartments and shops opening for new residents who commute to Changsha. (See pictures of China's cities.)
当我们以240公里的时速冲出最后一个隧道、进入平原时，他说：＂过去走这条路真是辛苦，现在我们就到了。＂以前，这段135公里的路程费时4小时，现在仅需35分钟。这条高铁推动衡山快速发展，面向长沙、衡山两地通勤人士的公寓楼和商店逐渐开张。
Inside China's Train Factories
走进中国的列车工厂
The pride of China's high-speed rail fleet is the 380A model, an all-Chinese manufactured train capable of cruising at 217 miles (350 kilometers) an hour, with a top working speed of 258 miles (415 kilometers) an hour. In a test run in 2010—with Railway Minister Liu cheering the driver on-a 380A reached 302 miles (485 kilometers) an hour, a world speed record for a production train. After this triumph, when Liu announced to reporters that the country would soon have trains routinely running at more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) an hour, the Chinese press began calling him Mad Liu.
中国高铁车队中最值得骄傲的是380A，这是运行时速350公里，最高时速415公里的全国产列车。在2010年的试跑中，刘跨越在380A上激励着司机冲过时速485公里，这是量产列车的世界纪录。这场大捷之后，老刘对记者宣称中国将很快有列车经常以300英里（482公里）以上的时速飞奔，中国媒体惊呼其为刘疯子。
The moniker was only partly in jest; it also reflected skepticism. From the outset, all the high-speed technology was imported from engineering giants such as Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, Germany's Siemens AG, and France's Alstom SA. It strained credulity that China could develop such advanced machinery on its own in just a few years, and even before the Wenzhou crash, many wondered if China was simply copying poorly understood foreign technology.
这一外号不仅仅是玩笑，它还反映了人们的质疑。从一开始，所有的高铁技术均从行业巨人日本川崎重工、德国西门子、法国阿尔斯通等进口。人们不相信中国能在短短几年内自行发展出如此先进的机械设备，即使在温州追尾前，许多人怀疑中国是否直接抄袭了并不熟悉的外国技术。
The managers of the 380A factory, who work for Qingdao Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Company, vehemently deny this. The Sifang factory—on a 330-acre (133-hectare) site with computerized labs, utilitarian sheds, and a test track—employs 8,000 people, including a thousand directly involved in making the 380A. Unlike many other Chinese factories I've visited, it's clean and modern, and workers wear safety goggles. The Sifang employees are a different breed from the gritty tunnel blasters in Hunan.
在生产380A的青岛四方里，经理人员强烈否认了这一说法。四方厂占地330英亩，拥有计算机化的实验室、工作间、试验轨道，雇员八千，其中有一千人直接参与380A研制。与我访问过的其它中国工厂不同，四方厂干净、现代，工人们佩戴护目镜。四方厂的员工与湖南开山隧道工有着天壤之别。
Sifang was founded by Germans in the early 1900s and developed what little railway engineering knowledge China had. The company has made some of China's most iconic trains, including the enormous steam-powered "Liberation" trains that were still in use as recently as 1992. During the Cold War years, Sifang's engineers went to Africa to build railways and project China's diplomatic power. Sifang also designed the high-altitude trains on the new line to Lhasa, which are being exported to Peru.
四方厂由德国人在20世纪初建立，开发出中国仅有的一点铁路技术。这家公司曾生产出中国最具代表性的火车，其中包括沿用至1992年的巨型＂解放＂蒸汽机车。冷战期间，四方工程师远赴非洲修建铁路，为中国投射外交力量。四方还设计出用于青藏铁路的高原列车，并出口秘鲁。
The factory's managers say that although their core technology was imported from Japan and Germany, Sifang merely "digested" it. The idea was to purchase technology legally, improve on it, and repatent it, making it a Chinese product. "Some technology and equipment is Western, as you can see," says Wang Hongmei, who's in charge of factory production. "But much of the core technology is Chinese."
四方经理人员表示，虽然他们的核心技术从日德引进，但四方已＂吸收＂了这些技术。他们的思路是合法地购买技术、改进之、再申请专利，使之成为中国产品。主管四方生产的王红梅（Wang Hongmei）表示：＂正如你所看到的，一些技术和设备来自西方，但很多核心技术是中国的。＂
That practice is by no means uniquely Chinese: After World War II, Japan's high-tech ascent was based initially on reverse-engineering U.S. and West German technology and then patenting the marginally different Japanese products. But China has started from a much lower technological and educational base than Japan, making its claimed accomplishments seem extraordinary.
这一作法并非中国独有，二战后，日本的高技术腾飞最初建立在对美国及西德技术的＂逆向工程＂之上，然后对稍许不同的日本产品申请专利。但在技术和教育程度上，中国的起步要比日本低得多，其号称的成就则显得极为惊人。
I asked Wu Qunliang, Sifang's chief spokesperson, how his factory could say that the 380A was a Chinese product. Its needle-nose design looks almost exactly like a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train, while the interior strongly resembles a German high-speed train. Wasn't this just sophisticated pirating?
我询问四方首席发言人Wu Qunliang：四方如何能将380A称为中国产品？它尖尖的头型与日本新干线的子弹头几乎一模一样，而内饰与德国高铁列车极其相似。这难道不是高级的盗版吗？
"Foreigners like to think this because they don't think Chinese can make advanced technology," he said. "Let me show you something."
吴说：＂外国人喜欢这样想是因为他们总以为中国人造不出高技术的东西。让我给你看看一些东西。＂
Wu took me to a small museum in the factory. Behind a glass case was a contract signed by Sifang and China's most important scientific agencies, pledging to work together to build China's own high-speed trains. Like the country's space program or its efforts to build an aircraft carrier, Wu explained, high-speed rail wasn't just another industry-it was a national priority. None of the technology was stolen, he said emphatically.
吴把我领到厂里的一间小博物馆。玻璃橱窗后是四方与中国最重要的数家科研单位签订的合同，合同各方保证将通力合作打造中国自己的高铁列车。吴解释到，正如中国的航天计划和航母研制，高铁不仅仅是另一项产业，它是中国的重点工程。他强调，没有一项技术是偷来的。
"We couldn't do this on our own, that's true," he said of Sifang. "But we had the science ministry involved and their expertise. It's the result of a long-standing national effort."
他表示：＂四方无法独立做到这一点，但我们有科技部的支持，这是举国长期努力的结晶。＂
Train Safety in Question?
车辆安全？
The 380A fit into Minister Liu's belief that China could "leapfrog" Western countries—an idea espoused fervently by communist China's first leader, Mao Zedong. Mao was convinced that with enough fervor China could bound ahead, leaving the details to be worked out later.
刘部长相信中国可以蛙跳式跨越西方国家，380A与此相符——中共开国领袖毛泽东曾热切地提倡这一思想。毛坚信足够的热情能够让中国领先，至于细节问题可以过后解决。
But throughout 2011, even China's state-controlled media began to question the high-speed rail program's safety. Blasting tunnels, laying track, and bending metal into sleek trains was one thing, but operating a coherent—and safe—system was another. Shortly after the Beijing-Shanghai line opened in June a series of signal problems caused delays, and the top speed for trains was reduced from 210 miles (338 kilometers) an hour to 180 miles (290 kilometers) an hour.
但在2011年，即使是官方控制的媒体也开始质疑高铁项目的安全性。开山、铺轨、将板材压制成流线型车身是一回事，运营一个完整安全的系统则是另一回事。京沪高铁在当年六月开通不久，一系列信号问题就造成延误，最高时速也从338公里降到290公里。
By then, Liu had already resigned on the corruption charges. Chinese media, citing unnamed sources, says he channeled contracts to a mistress who ran a company that made rail signals. A report in a major Chinese business magazine said the woman also provided him with other girlfriends.
那时，刘也已因贪腐指控辞职。中国媒体援引不具名人士称，刘将生产信号的合同交给其情妇的公司。中国一份主要财经杂志报道称该情妇还向刘提供其他一些女人。
When I went back to Hunan last summer to see tunnel manager Qian Shengmu, he said that the ministry had put blasting on hold. "There's a new emphasis on quality. They want us to take more time."
去年夏天，当我重返湖南探望隧道经理钱生睦时，他表示铁道路已暂停该项目。＂他们重新强调工程质量，要求我们放慢进度。＂
From Qian's construction site he could see several other tunnels, each run by separate companies. The fragmentation was meant to foster competition, but it was wasteful. Each company had equipment and staff that it only needed once every few days—dump trucks to carry the rubble down the hill, technical staff who measure out the dynamite.
从钱的工地，他可看到其它的几个隧道，每个都由不同的公司承包。分散发包原本是为了鼓励竞争，但却很浪费。每个公司都有隔几天才用一次的设备和员工，如将碎石运送下山的汽车、分配炸药量的技术员等。
The system did, however, ensure that ministry officials were assiduously wined and dined by dozens of small bosses. Indeed, much of Qian's time was spent on the road, tracking down the petty officials who dole out contracts. When I mentioned Minister Liu's troubles, Qian laughed.
这一体制却保证了铁道部官员被大小几十个老板团团围住，吃喝不断。的确，钱老板大部分的时间都花在路上，追逐着分配合同的芝麻官们。当我提起刘的麻烦，钱老板笑了。
"We have to cultivate a lot of relations with officials," he said. "How else do you get deals?"
＂我们得培养与官员的关系，不然合同怎么来？＂
Shortly after I visited Qian, a bullet train from Beijing barreled into another high-speed train that had lost power during a lightning storm outside the coastal city of Wenzhou. Four cars plunged 65 feet (20 meters) from a viaduct to the vegetable fields below. Forty people died, and 192 were injured.
我采访钱之后不久，来自北京的子弹头列车高速撞向另一列因雷暴天气在温州站外趴窝的列车。四节车厢从20米高的桥上跌落到下边的菜地。40人丧生，192人受伤。
Accidents are common in China, but coming after Minister Liu's resignation, it caused an uproar on China's lively microblogging scene. Somehow-maybe because it came after 30 years of pell-mell development—the disaster seems to have grown in significance, with time, becoming lodged in the national psyche as "7-2-3," after the date of the accident, July 23.
中国的事故很普遍，但这场在刘部下台之后发生的事故则在中国生机勃勃的微博空间引发了一场海啸。或许是因为它发生在30年无序发展之后，总之这场事故的意义似乎日长夜大，成为打在中国神经上的烙印＂723＂——事故发生的日期，7月23日。
Crash Survivors Remain Angry
追尾幸存者依然愤怒
这一节不愿翻了，心烦，总之是历数高阻干的操蛋事，挖坑埋车头、禁止律师介入、赔偿标准低、信息不透明、官方态度倨傲等等。俺要再次高喊高阻去吃S…
"It Used to be a Golden Age"
＂曾经的黄金岁月＂
I often wondered whether the push for high-speed rails was meant to serve the people or the state. Riding from Beijing to Shanghai, the experience seems as good as any I'd had in Europe, and possibly even better, given the greater distances. Yes, the finish and the details look cheap compared to German or French trains, and the food is atrocious.
我经常在想，努力建设高铁是为人民服务还是为国家服务。从北京到上海，感觉和在欧洲乘高铁一样好，甚至可能更好些，毕竟旅途更长。诚然，与德法列车比起来，中国的做工和细节均显廉价，食品更是巨恶。
But the trains average 180 miles (290 kilometers) an hour. You rip through the countryside, stopping only twice before pulling into Shanghai's new Hongqiao station on time. As for the price, second class is $90, cheaper than all but the deepest discounted airline ticket, and the total travel time is only about an hour longer than by plane, once you factor in getting out to the airport, going through security, and so on.
但列车以290公里的旅速在乡间飞奔，仅停靠两站即准点驶入上海新虹桥站。二等座价格为90美元，比除了折扣最低的机票便宜，考虑到进出机场和安检等因素，总体旅途费时仅比飞机多一小时。
The trains run every hour, providing what is essentially a commuter service between China's two greatest cities. Yet what lies between are vast, forgotten swaths of the country where most people live. They are served at best by slow, overcrowded trains. I experienced one going from Beijing to Datong, a city I first visited in 1984. The 200-mile (320-kilometer) run takes six hours-merely two hours faster than nearly 30 years before.
列车每小时发一班，几乎成了中国两大都市的通勤车。但两座城市之间是大多数人生活的、被遗忘的广袤区域。这些地区最多能指望一些拥挤的低速火车。（我翻到这里要崩溃了）我乘过北京到大同的火车，320公里的路程跑了6个小时，只比30年前快了两小时。
On a trip earlier this year, my train was crammed and filthy. The poorly designed ventilation system sucked fumes from the diesel locomotive straight into the wagons, and when we were barely out of Beijing, a sticky mix of water and urine already coated the toilet floor. But it was cheap: eight dollars for a second-class seat.
在今年早些时候的这次旅行中，我乘坐的火车又拥又脏。设计糟糕的通风系统直接从柴油机车里吸气然后送往客车厢。刚出京城，厕所地板就已覆上一层粘粘的尿水混合物。但票价便宜，二等票八美元。
Perhaps the hundreds of billions already spent on high-speed railways might have been more effectively spent upgrading the entire network-enhancing overall mobility and helping reduce tensions between rich and poor. Yet China's technocratic leaders have a deep belief that elites should lead the way, and high-speed rail is their vision for the future.
也许花在高铁上的数千亿美元可以更高效地用于升级整个网络，提升整体运作效率并减轻贫富矛盾。但中国的技术型领导人深信精英阶层应起到带头作用，而高铁则是他们对未来的构想。
And in some ways, perhaps they are right. A recent report says that on many key high-speed lines, fares are covering debt costs, confounding skeptics who said high-speed trains were purely prestige projects. During my last visit with Qian Shengmu, I joined him in the southern city of Fuzhou, where he was finishing up a mile-long (1.6-kilometer-long) tunnel, part of another high-speed line that would link the mountain-enclosed port of six million with the interior. His tunnel in Hunan was under construction again, the ministry having released some money. I asked Qian about the future of the program.
在某些方面，他们或许是正确的。最近一项报告显示，在许多主要高铁线上，票价收入已可覆盖贷款成本，令那些将高铁斥为面子工程的质疑者目瞪口呆。我最近一次采访钱生睦是在福州，他正给一条一英里长的隧道作收尾工作。该隧道是一条新高铁的组成部分，这条高铁将这座拥有六百万人口、被群山环绕的港口城市与内陆连接起来。他在湖南的隧道已经复工，部里拨了一些款。我问钱老板那项工程的前景。
"It used to be a golden age," he said. "The ministry had so much money and the emphasis was build, build, build. Speed. Now there's criticism. But they will finish this. They have to. They started this so they have to finish it."
他说：＂曾经的黄金年代啊，部里原来是那么有钱，总是强调建、建、建。速度。现在有那么多批评。但他们会完工，他们没有选择，开弓没有回头箭。＂
Ian Johnson is a Beijing-based writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of China. He is now writing a book about China's search for spiritual values and spends several months a year traveling around the country, mostly by rail.
作者介绍：Ian Johnson是驻北京记者，曾因报道中国获得普利策奖。他正在写一部关于中国寻找精神价值的书。每年他总有几个月周游中国，大多是坐火车。美国国家地理杂志http://news.nationalgeographic.c ... ansportation-world/
China Advances High-Speed Rail Amid Safety, Corruption Concerns
中国高铁在安全与腐败的质疑声中前行
Photograph by Michael Yamashita, National Geographic
Despite popularity of high-speed trains (pictured, passengers enroute to Zhengzhou), many are worried about safety and charges of corruption.
配图是发往郑州某普铁客车内景：高铁虽火，很多人还是很担心安全和腐败问题
Ye Shaoguang sits in his mud-and-brick home, waiting for the next explosion. It's June, and his living room is filled with the bounty of rural Hunan: freshly plucked bayberries and ceramic jars of fresh honey from his bee colony. He ladles dark yellow syrup into a bowl. "Eat it," he says. "It's wild honey, like nothing you'll get in the cities." (Related pictures: "Chinese High-Speed Rail in Focus.")
叶少光（Ye Shaoguang）在泥砖砌成的家中，坐等下一轮爆炸。时值六月，客厅里堆满了湖南农家的珍宝：新摘的山桃和盛满新鲜蜂蜜的瓦罐。他将暗黄色的糖浆舀入碗中，招呼到：＂尝尝，这可是野生蜂蜜，城里可找不到。＂
Beyond Ye's front yard is a rice field, and beyond that, a gaping hole in the side of the valley: a tunnel being blasted through the mountains. When completed next year, the Zhangjiashi tunnel will allow trains to race 200 miles (320 kilometers) an hour between the southern metropolis of Kunming and the financial hub of Shanghai.
叶家的前院是一片稻田，再远处的山侧则豁然洞开：山体内正爆破开凿一条隧道。明年完工后，沪昆高铁列车将以320公里的时速在Zhangjiashi隧道内飞驰。
The project symbolizes China's 21st-century aspirations: High-speed trains are a national priority for China, with 10,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) of lines due to link 24 cities by 2020. Since the program got under way in 2007, half of the lines have been built, with another major north-south artery the length of the country set to open later this year. It's an engineering blitzkrieg meant to awe the Chinese people and show off the nation's new industrial might.
这一工程是中国21世纪梦想的象征：在中国，高铁是全国重心，预计2020年之前，将有一万英里的线路连接24座城市。自该工程于2007年启动后，计划中一半的里程已然建成，另有一条纵贯中国南北的干线将于今年晚些时候开通。这是一场旨在震撼中国民众、炫耀国家工业实力的工程奇袭。
Less impressive have been the costs—financial and human. Last year two events happened that continue to shake the railway system and China as a whole. One was the detention of China's once powerful railway minister, Liu Zhijun, an old-style communist central planner who rolled out the high-speed network like a general using human-wave tactics.
然而工程的代价却不这么出彩，其中包括财政和人身代价。去年发生的两个事件仍继续震动着铁路系统乃至整个中国。其一，盛极一时的铁道部长刘跨越被捕，他是一位老式共产中央计划者，如同使用人海战术的将军一样推进高铁网络。
Thousands of work teams were deployed to blast open mountains, bridge gullies, and pave over the countryside. But investigations show that Liu's methods were based on massive corruption, and he himself is accused of graft and "sexual misconduct."
数以千计的工程队伍被派往各地开山、架桥、铺轨。但调查显示刘的方法乃建立于大规模贪腐之上，而他本人也被控以贪污与生活不轨。
The other event that has caused a broader rethink of China's development path was a terrifying crash of two high-speed trains last year near the city of Wenzhou. The crash has come to symbolize the ruling Communist Party's development-at-all-costs strategy. One commentator said on national television that China was "leaving the souls of the people behind." As one crash survivor told me: "Where is happiness? Is it only in statistics and numbers?"
另一大事件则引发了关于中国发展路线的更广泛的思考：骇人的温州高铁追尾。这场事故象征着当权共党不惜代价的发展思路。一位评论员在全国电视上说：＂等等人民的灵魂。＂一位事故幸存者告诉我：＂幸福在哪里？难道只在统计数据里？＂
One upshot of these scandals is that the ministry—which has been run since the People's Republic's founding in 1949 as a quasi-military fiefdom, with its own courts and police force—may lose its independent status and be subsumed by the Ministry of Transport. That could happen as soon as the Communist Party's 18th Congress, slated to start November 8.
这些丑闻亦有积极的一面：铁道部这一拥有法院与警察的、自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来即以半军事化管理的小天地或将失去独立地位，从而并入交通部，而这一切最快有可能在十一月八日开幕的十八大上实现。
"This Shows We Are a Great Country"
＂这说明我们是一个伟大的国家＂
These tensions are on display at the emerging Zhangjiashi tunnel here in the Hunanese countryside. The construction methods are traditional: The 60 workers bore holes into the mountainside with long, thin drills, insert sticks of dynamite, and clear the rubble by hand. Blast by blast, they extend the tunnel about a yard each day. It's slow, exacting work, but they have a chance to earn $600 a month, five times what they make as farmers.
在湖南Zhangjiashi隧道项目上，中国铁路的种种矛盾展露无遗。建筑方法颇为传统：六十名工人在岩壁上钻出深孔、填入炸药、人工清理碎石。一轮轮爆破，每日推进约一米。这是一项缓慢、高要求的工作，但工人们每月可挣得600美元，相当于农民收入的五倍。
The tunnel manager is a wily businessman named Qian Shengmu, who has no formal education and learned his trade by trial and error over the past 25 years.
工程经理钱生睦（Qian Shengmu）是一名精明的商人，他没受过正规教育，在过去25年的摸爬滚打中熟悉这一行当。
He gets financing from loan sharks, and the high interest rates they charge—upward of 60 percent—mean that he's always pushing his men to hurry up and finish. Deals, he says matter-of-factly, are secured through bribes.
他通过地下钱庄获得贷款，高利率（甚至达到60%）迫使其不断地催促手下早日完工。他一本正经地说到合同是通过行贿获得的。
Old Mr. Ye and his family have strong opinions about the push for high-speed trains. "Of course it's good," Ye says. "It's a sign that China is rich." His mother-in-law disagrees. "It will crack our walls! Who will buy us a new house when ours collapses from the vibrations?"
老叶一家对高铁的建设各有不同主张，老叶本人认为高铁甚好，乃国家富裕的象征。而他的丈母娘则不同意：＂家里房子会被震裂！房子震塌了谁给我们买新的？＂
Ye would never ride on a bullet train-he can hardly afford the slow train to the provincial capital, Changsha, a 75-mile (120-kilometer) ride away. But he prides himself on thinking strategically. "This is a national issue," he says with finality. "This shows we are a great country."
老叶从未坐过高铁，到省会长沙（距离120公里）的普铁票都令他感到吃力。但他对自己的战略思维颇为自豪，他决然地说：＂这可是国家大事，显示我们是一个强国。＂
A few moments later the mountainside rumbles, and the house shakes. An angry murmur emanates from the hives on the front stoop, and bees swarm out in the heavy afternoon air, threatening to attack. They fly off, and quiet returns. "You see," Ye says triumphantly. "Nothing collapsed."
片刻之后，山里传来闷响，房子震动。蜂巢里一阵愤怒的嗡嗡，群蜂在午后闷热的空气中出动，架势狰狞。它们飞走了，而后静静地归巢。老叶得意地说：＂您瞧，啥都没倒。＂
Few countries have such a vexed relationship with railways as China. When the first line was laid in 1876, many Chinese worried that the steel bands would disrupt the flow of chi, or life energy, which, according to ancient belief, is channeled through mountains and valleys, people, and animals.
天下少有像中国那样与铁路有着如此纠结的关系。当第一条铁路在1876年铺下时，许多中国人担心铁轨会搅乱＂气＂流，或称生命能量，根据传统理论，气在人体、天地万物、飞鸟走兽中穿行。
Pragmatists fretted that in an already overpopulated country the rails would add to unemployment by supplanting boatmen and coolies. As one official put it to a United States visitor in the late 19th century: "They bring in foreigners whom I do not like, and they throw men out of work."
实用主义者则担忧铁路将在人口过剩的国家里取代船工和苦力，从而加剧失业。正如19世纪末一位官员向美国到访者所说：＂火车输入吾本不喜之外国人，并抢去中国人的饭碗。＂
How China's Rail System Developed
中国的铁路系统是如何发展的
In 1911 the imperial government conceded that China needed a railway system and announced that it would nationalize and expand the network. Because the government was near bankruptcy, it was decided to allow foreigners to buy equity stakes, effectively giving them ownership.
1911年，清庭承认中国需要铁路系统并宣布将国有化和扩大铁路网。因政府濒临破产，所以它允许外国人执股，事实上将铁路所有权拱手相让。
Patriots were outraged and formed the Railway League to oppose foreign takeover. Many government troops joined the league. Later that year the soldiers mutinied, and the child emperor Puyi abdicated, ending 2,000 years of imperial rule.
爱国者极为愤怒，组成护路团阻止外国并购。许多政府军队皆加入其中。当年，军队哗变，幼帝溥仪退位，二千多年的封建统治告终。
When the Communists took power in 1949, China still had a small, fragmented rail system—less than half the mileage the British left India in 1947. Half the lines were in the northeast, which Japan had colonized and developed, and most of the rest ran down the eastern seaboard.
共产党于49年上台之时，中国仅有一个小型、零碎的铁路系统，不足1947年英国留在印度的铁路里程的一半。全路一半里程集中在东北日占区，余下大部分位于东部沿海。
The early Communist leaders were unenthusiastic railway builders, but they left a lasting legacy: The railway under Chairman Mao became a quasi-military operation. The Ministry of Railways, headquartered across the street from the Ministry of Defense, emerged as one of China's most powerful bureaus. Its construction branch was called the tiedaobing, or "railway soldiers."
共产党早期领导人并不热衷于铁路建设，但他们留下了一笔长期遗产：铁路在毛主席的手下成为一项半军事化事业。与国防部一街之隔的铁道部成为中国最强大的部门之一，它的建设队伍被称为＂铁道兵＂。
One line was pushed out west to link the restive province of Xinjiang, which was also home to the Lop Nor nuclear testing facility. In a feat of engineering, another line was punched from the inland city of Chengdu through the mountains to Kunming, not far from the border with then North Vietnam, China's ally engaged in a war with the U.S. More than 2,100 workers died building this line, and many were declared national martyrs for their sacrifice.
一条线路通往中国西部动荡省份新疆，这是罗布泊核试验设施的所在地。另一项工程绝技则是穿越千山万水的、连接腹地城市成都与离北越不远的昆明的铁路，中国与北越在越战中乃同盟。超过2100名工人在建设成昆铁路时丧生，因为他们付出的牺牲，许多工人被追认为全国烈士。
Despite these heroic efforts, during the communists' first 30 years in power the number of rail miles only doubled, to 30,000. By the year 2000, China had 42,000 miles (67,000 kilometers) of track—about a third as much as the U.S. That's when Beijing made railway building a national priority. Within a decade the total mileage had risen to 56,500, and it is planned to reach 75,000 by 2015. Rails are transforming China's mental geography.
尽管付出了英勇努力，建国三十年后中国铁路里程仅仅翻番，达到三万英里。到2000年，中国拥有四万二千英里（6万7千公里）铁路，约为美国的三分之一。从此，北京将铁路建设列为全国重点。十年时间里，铁路里程达到56500英里，计划将于2015达到75000英里。铁路正改变中国心理上地理。
Cities that in the past seemed hopelessly remote or only reachable by infrequent flights are now a couple of hours away. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line, which opened in 2011, cut travel time from 12 hours to less than 5. (That's the distance from Philadelphia to Atlanta, which takes 16 hours by Amtrak.)
过去那些穷乡僻壤或仅有数趟航班可及的地方，如今不过仅隔几小时。2011年开通的京沪高铁将旅程从12小时压缩短到不足5小时。（相当于费城到亚特兰大的距离，乘Amtrak需16小时。）
High-speed service is no less transformative on short stretches, as I discovered going from the poor mountain town of Hengshan in Hunan to the provincial capital of Changsha. The tracks ran as straight as the crow flies, with mountains, villages, and marshes all yielding to the railway ministry's might. I sat next to a farmer who was traveling to visit his daughter in Changsha.
高铁对于短途旅行也同样是变革性的，我在从湖南衡山到长沙的路上深有体会。这条高铁如空中航线般笔直，在祟山峻岭、村庄、滩涂间穿行，一马平川，势不可拦。我坐在一名前往长沙探望女儿的农民身边。
"It used to be so bitter to make this trip," he said as we whooshed out of the last tunnel at 150 miles (240 kilometers) an hour and entered the flatlands. "Now we've already arrived." The 85-mile (135-kilometer) trip used to take 4 hours; we did it in 35 minutes. The link is helping Hengshan boom, with apartments and shops opening for new residents who commute to Changsha. (See pictures of China's cities.)
当我们以240公里的时速冲出最后一个隧道、进入平原时，他说：＂过去走这条路真是辛苦，现在我们就到了。＂以前，这段135公里的路程费时4小时，现在仅需35分钟。这条高铁推动衡山快速发展，面向长沙、衡山两地通勤人士的公寓楼和商店逐渐开张。
Inside China's Train Factories
走进中国的列车工厂
The pride of China's high-speed rail fleet is the 380A model, an all-Chinese manufactured train capable of cruising at 217 miles (350 kilometers) an hour, with a top working speed of 258 miles (415 kilometers) an hour. In a test run in 2010—with Railway Minister Liu cheering the driver on-a 380A reached 302 miles (485 kilometers) an hour, a world speed record for a production train. After this triumph, when Liu announced to reporters that the country would soon have trains routinely running at more than 300 miles (482 kilometers) an hour, the Chinese press began calling him Mad Liu.
中国高铁车队中最值得骄傲的是380A，这是运行时速350公里，最高时速415公里的全国产列车。在2010年的试跑中，刘跨越在380A上激励着司机冲过时速485公里，这是量产列车的世界纪录。这场大捷之后，老刘对记者宣称中国将很快有列车经常以300英里（482公里）以上的时速飞奔，中国媒体惊呼其为刘疯子。
The moniker was only partly in jest; it also reflected skepticism. From the outset, all the high-speed technology was imported from engineering giants such as Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, Germany's Siemens AG, and France's Alstom SA. It strained credulity that China could develop such advanced machinery on its own in just a few years, and even before the Wenzhou crash, many wondered if China was simply copying poorly understood foreign technology.
这一外号不仅仅是玩笑，它还反映了人们的质疑。从一开始，所有的高铁技术均从行业巨人日本川崎重工、德国西门子、法国阿尔斯通等进口。人们不相信中国能在短短几年内自行发展出如此先进的机械设备，即使在温州追尾前，许多人怀疑中国是否直接抄袭了并不熟悉的外国技术。
The managers of the 380A factory, who work for Qingdao Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Company, vehemently deny this. The Sifang factory—on a 330-acre (133-hectare) site with computerized labs, utilitarian sheds, and a test track—employs 8,000 people, including a thousand directly involved in making the 380A. Unlike many other Chinese factories I've visited, it's clean and modern, and workers wear safety goggles. The Sifang employees are a different breed from the gritty tunnel blasters in Hunan.
在生产380A的青岛四方里，经理人员强烈否认了这一说法。四方厂占地330英亩，拥有计算机化的实验室、工作间、试验轨道，雇员八千，其中有一千人直接参与380A研制。与我访问过的其它中国工厂不同，四方厂干净、现代，工人们佩戴护目镜。四方厂的员工与湖南开山隧道工有着天壤之别。
Sifang was founded by Germans in the early 1900s and developed what little railway engineering knowledge China had. The company has made some of China's most iconic trains, including the enormous steam-powered "Liberation" trains that were still in use as recently as 1992. During the Cold War years, Sifang's engineers went to Africa to build railways and project China's diplomatic power. Sifang also designed the high-altitude trains on the new line to Lhasa, which are being exported to Peru.
四方厂由德国人在20世纪初建立，开发出中国仅有的一点铁路技术。这家公司曾生产出中国最具代表性的火车，其中包括沿用至1992年的巨型＂解放＂蒸汽机车。冷战期间，四方工程师远赴非洲修建铁路，为中国投射外交力量。四方还设计出用于青藏铁路的高原列车，并出口秘鲁。
The factory's managers say that although their core technology was imported from Japan and Germany, Sifang merely "digested" it. The idea was to purchase technology legally, improve on it, and repatent it, making it a Chinese product. "Some technology and equipment is Western, as you can see," says Wang Hongmei, who's in charge of factory production. "But much of the core technology is Chinese."
四方经理人员表示，虽然他们的核心技术从日德引进，但四方已＂吸收＂了这些技术。他们的思路是合法地购买技术、改进之、再申请专利，使之成为中国产品。主管四方生产的王红梅（Wang Hongmei）表示：＂正如你所看到的，一些技术和设备来自西方，但很多核心技术是中国的。＂
That practice is by no means uniquely Chinese: After World War II, Japan's high-tech ascent was based initially on reverse-engineering U.S. and West German technology and then patenting the marginally different Japanese products. But China has started from a much lower technological and educational base than Japan, making its claimed accomplishments seem extraordinary.
这一作法并非中国独有，二战后，日本的高技术腾飞最初建立在对美国及西德技术的＂逆向工程＂之上，然后对稍许不同的日本产品申请专利。但在技术和教育程度上，中国的起步要比日本低得多，其号称的成就则显得极为惊人。
I asked Wu Qunliang, Sifang's chief spokesperson, how his factory could say that the 380A was a Chinese product. Its needle-nose design looks almost exactly like a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train, while the interior strongly resembles a German high-speed train. Wasn't this just sophisticated pirating?
我询问四方首席发言人Wu Qunliang：四方如何能将380A称为中国产品？它尖尖的头型与日本新干线的子弹头几乎一模一样，而内饰与德国高铁列车极其相似。这难道不是高级的盗版吗？
"Foreigners like to think this because they don't think Chinese can make advanced technology," he said. "Let me show you something."
吴说：＂外国人喜欢这样想是因为他们总以为中国人造不出高技术的东西。让我给你看看一些东西。＂
Wu took me to a small museum in the factory. Behind a glass case was a contract signed by Sifang and China's most important scientific agencies, pledging to work together to build China's own high-speed trains. Like the country's space program or its efforts to build an aircraft carrier, Wu explained, high-speed rail wasn't just another industry-it was a national priority. None of the technology was stolen, he said emphatically.
吴把我领到厂里的一间小博物馆。玻璃橱窗后是四方与中国最重要的数家科研单位签订的合同，合同各方保证将通力合作打造中国自己的高铁列车。吴解释到，正如中国的航天计划和航母研制，高铁不仅仅是另一项产业，它是中国的重点工程。他强调，没有一项技术是偷来的。
"We couldn't do this on our own, that's true," he said of Sifang. "But we had the science ministry involved and their expertise. It's the result of a long-standing national effort."
他表示：＂四方无法独立做到这一点，但我们有科技部的支持，这是举国长期努力的结晶。＂
Train Safety in Question?
车辆安全？
The 380A fit into Minister Liu's belief that China could "leapfrog" Western countries—an idea espoused fervently by communist China's first leader, Mao Zedong. Mao was convinced that with enough fervor China could bound ahead, leaving the details to be worked out later.
刘部长相信中国可以蛙跳式跨越西方国家，380A与此相符——中共开国领袖毛泽东曾热切地提倡这一思想。毛坚信足够的热情能够让中国领先，至于细节问题可以过后解决。
But throughout 2011, even China's state-controlled media began to question the high-speed rail program's safety. Blasting tunnels, laying track, and bending metal into sleek trains was one thing, but operating a coherent—and safe—system was another. Shortly after the Beijing-Shanghai line opened in June a series of signal problems caused delays, and the top speed for trains was reduced from 210 miles (338 kilometers) an hour to 180 miles (290 kilometers) an hour.
但在2011年，即使是官方控制的媒体也开始质疑高铁项目的安全性。开山、铺轨、将板材压制成流线型车身是一回事，运营一个完整安全的系统则是另一回事。京沪高铁在当年六月开通不久，一系列信号问题就造成延误，最高时速也从338公里降到290公里。
By then, Liu had already resigned on the corruption charges. Chinese media, citing unnamed sources, says he channeled contracts to a mistress who ran a company that made rail signals. A report in a major Chinese business magazine said the woman also provided him with other girlfriends.
那时，刘也已因贪腐指控辞职。中国媒体援引不具名人士称，刘将生产信号的合同交给其情妇的公司。中国一份主要财经杂志报道称该情妇还向刘提供其他一些女人。
When I went back to Hunan last summer to see tunnel manager Qian Shengmu, he said that the ministry had put blasting on hold. "There's a new emphasis on quality. They want us to take more time."
去年夏天，当我重返湖南探望隧道经理钱生睦时，他表示铁道路已暂停该项目。＂他们重新强调工程质量，要求我们放慢进度。＂
From Qian's construction site he could see several other tunnels, each run by separate companies. The fragmentation was meant to foster competition, but it was wasteful. Each company had equipment and staff that it only needed once every few days—dump trucks to carry the rubble down the hill, technical staff who measure out the dynamite.
从钱的工地，他可看到其它的几个隧道，每个都由不同的公司承包。分散发包原本是为了鼓励竞争，但却很浪费。每个公司都有隔几天才用一次的设备和员工，如将碎石运送下山的汽车、分配炸药量的技术员等。
The system did, however, ensure that ministry officials were assiduously wined and dined by dozens of small bosses. Indeed, much of Qian's time was spent on the road, tracking down the petty officials who dole out contracts. When I mentioned Minister Liu's troubles, Qian laughed.
这一体制却保证了铁道部官员被大小几十个老板团团围住，吃喝不断。的确，钱老板大部分的时间都花在路上，追逐着分配合同的芝麻官们。当我提起刘的麻烦，钱老板笑了。
"We have to cultivate a lot of relations with officials," he said. "How else do you get deals?"
＂我们得培养与官员的关系，不然合同怎么来？＂
Shortly after I visited Qian, a bullet train from Beijing barreled into another high-speed train that had lost power during a lightning storm outside the coastal city of Wenzhou. Four cars plunged 65 feet (20 meters) from a viaduct to the vegetable fields below. Forty people died, and 192 were injured.
我采访钱之后不久，来自北京的子弹头列车高速撞向另一列因雷暴天气在温州站外趴窝的列车。四节车厢从20米高的桥上跌落到下边的菜地。40人丧生，192人受伤。
Accidents are common in China, but coming after Minister Liu's resignation, it caused an uproar on China's lively microblogging scene. Somehow-maybe because it came after 30 years of pell-mell development—the disaster seems to have grown in significance, with time, becoming lodged in the national psyche as "7-2-3," after the date of the accident, July 23.
中国的事故很普遍，但这场在刘部下台之后发生的事故则在中国生机勃勃的微博空间引发了一场海啸。或许是因为它发生在30年无序发展之后，总之这场事故的意义似乎日长夜大，成为打在中国神经上的烙印＂723＂——事故发生的日期，7月23日。
Crash Survivors Remain Angry
追尾幸存者依然愤怒
这一节不愿翻了，心烦，总之是历数高阻干的操蛋事，挖坑埋车头、禁止律师介入、赔偿标准低、信息不透明、官方态度倨傲等等。俺要再次高喊高阻去吃S…
"It Used to be a Golden Age"
＂曾经的黄金岁月＂
I often wondered whether the push for high-speed rails was meant to serve the people or the state. Riding from Beijing to Shanghai, the experience seems as good as any I'd had in Europe, and possibly even better, given the greater distances. Yes, the finish and the details look cheap compared to German or French trains, and the food is atrocious.
我经常在想，努力建设高铁是为人民服务还是为国家服务。从北京到上海，感觉和在欧洲乘高铁一样好，甚至可能更好些，毕竟旅途更长。诚然，与德法列车比起来，中国的做工和细节均显廉价，食品更是巨恶。
But the trains average 180 miles (290 kilometers) an hour. You rip through the countryside, stopping only twice before pulling into Shanghai's new Hongqiao station on time. As for the price, second class is $90, cheaper than all but the deepest discounted airline ticket, and the total travel time is only about an hour longer than by plane, once you factor in getting out to the airport, going through security, and so on.
但列车以290公里的旅速在乡间飞奔，仅停靠两站即准点驶入上海新虹桥站。二等座价格为90美元，比除了折扣最低的机票便宜，考虑到进出机场和安检等因素，总体旅途费时仅比飞机多一小时。
The trains run every hour, providing what is essentially a commuter service between China's two greatest cities. Yet what lies between are vast, forgotten swaths of the country where most people live. They are served at best by slow, overcrowded trains. I experienced one going from Beijing to Datong, a city I first visited in 1984. The 200-mile (320-kilometer) run takes six hours-merely two hours faster than nearly 30 years before.
列车每小时发一班，几乎成了中国两大都市的通勤车。但两座城市之间是大多数人生活的、被遗忘的广袤区域。这些地区最多能指望一些拥挤的低速火车。（我翻到这里要崩溃了）我乘过北京到大同的火车，320公里的路程跑了6个小时，只比30年前快了两小时。
On a trip earlier this year, my train was crammed and filthy. The poorly designed ventilation system sucked fumes from the diesel locomotive straight into the wagons, and when we were barely out of Beijing, a sticky mix of water and urine already coated the toilet floor. But it was cheap: eight dollars for a second-class seat.
在今年早些时候的这次旅行中，我乘坐的火车又拥又脏。设计糟糕的通风系统直接从柴油机车里吸气然后送往客车厢。刚出京城，厕所地板就已覆上一层粘粘的尿水混合物。但票价便宜，二等票八美元。
Perhaps the hundreds of billions already spent on high-speed railways might have been more effectively spent upgrading the entire network-enhancing overall mobility and helping reduce tensions between rich and poor. Yet China's technocratic leaders have a deep belief that elites should lead the way, and high-speed rail is their vision for the future.
也许花在高铁上的数千亿美元可以更高效地用于升级整个网络，提升整体运作效率并减轻贫富矛盾。但中国的技术型领导人深信精英阶层应起到带头作用，而高铁则是他们对未来的构想。
And in some ways, perhaps they are right. A recent report says that on many key high-speed lines, fares are covering debt costs, confounding skeptics who said high-speed trains were purely prestige projects. During my last visit with Qian Shengmu, I joined him in the southern city of Fuzhou, where he was finishing up a mile-long (1.6-kilometer-long) tunnel, part of another high-speed line that would link the mountain-enclosed port of six million with the interior. His tunnel in Hunan was under construction again, the ministry having released some money. I asked Qian about the future of the program.
在某些方面，他们或许是正确的。最近一项报告显示，在许多主要高铁线上，票价收入已可覆盖贷款成本，令那些将高铁斥为面子工程的质疑者目瞪口呆。我最近一次采访钱生睦是在福州，他正给一条一英里长的隧道作收尾工作。该隧道是一条新高铁的组成部分，这条高铁将这座拥有六百万人口、被群山环绕的港口城市与内陆连接起来。他在湖南的隧道已经复工，部里拨了一些款。我问钱老板那项工程的前景。
"It used to be a golden age," he said. "The ministry had so much money and the emphasis was build, build, build. Speed. Now there's criticism. But they will finish this. They have to. They started this so they have to finish it."
他说：＂曾经的黄金年代啊，部里原来是那么有钱，总是强调建、建、建。速度。现在有那么多批评。但他们会完工，他们没有选择，开弓没有回头箭。＂
Ian Johnson is a Beijing-based writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of China. He is now writing a book about China's search for spiritual values and spends several months a year traveling around the country, mostly by rail.
作者介绍：Ian Johnson是驻北京记者，曾因报道中国获得普利策奖。他正在写一部关于中国寻找精神价值的书。每年他总有几个月周游中国，大多是坐火车。
话说美国的铁路事故比中国多吧
经常做火车de对铁老大有好评的不多把吧
西方的心态跟我们清朝那会何其相似。西方有了新东西，我们投以巨大热情，感叹新技术的伟大。我们有了新东西，西方却使劲诋毁，难以接受
一个连高铁都没有的国家，看到兔子家的高铁快速发展，开始吐酸葡萄了
食品更是巨恶。
《国家地理》是在卖萌咩
《国家地理》是在卖萌咩
这篇文章很正常，一贯的文风。
没吐出什么新货啊
尽管有些地方写的不是很客观，但已经很不错了，不寄希望作者能写出完全符合真实的作品。
太好了！高铁是个“罪恶”的东西！我希望美国人民能充分的认识到这一点，制抵高铁人人有责！ 就让中国独自在“罪恶”中前行吧
看到写中国农民坐不起长120公里进长沙的火车我就无力了，敢情中国农民外出数千公里打工都是走路去的？
正常的，西方所有的派到中国的记者必须“政治正确”，什么是政治“政治正确”？客观公正，自由民主是不可能的。不过我感到奇怪，西方这么做，只能愚昧自己的民众，难道它们想愚昧我们中国人？真奇怪？我看到许多西方人到中国的报道，西方人总问一些弱智的问题，无知到极点，什么中国人能不能上网？有没有饭吃？我们中国人总是不厌其烦的努力更正西方人的说法，我觉得恶心到极点！我希望我们中国人以后永远不要这么做了，西方人喜欢愚昧自己人，喜欢堕落，那我们就帮助它们愚昧！让它们继续偏见，继续弱智。但我们中国人必须眼界开阔，必须客观真实，冷静。
至少食品那句话是灰常灰常真实滴，如果那种东西可以叫做食品滴话。
私货不少
不过高铁的食品巨恶心这话是一点都没错，TMD又贵又难吃。坐高铁动车每人都发一瓶超市里要卖到七八块的矿泉水，把这钱改成每人发碗泡面都比车上那破盒饭强
不过高铁的食品巨恶心这话是一点都没错，TMD又贵又难吃。坐高铁动车每人都发一瓶超市里要卖到七八块的矿泉水，把这钱改成每人发碗泡面都比车上那破盒饭强
yu99222 发表于 2012-10-8 09:12 ![]()
正常的，西方所有的派到中国的记者必须“政治正确”，什么是政治“政治正确”？客观公正，自由民主是不可能 ...
同意你的观点，美国连一寸高铁都没有，评论别人家的东西居然也能评出优越感来，佩服
正常的，西方所有的派到中国的记者必须“政治正确”，什么是政治“政治正确”？客观公正，自由民主是不可能 ...
同意你的观点，美国连一寸高铁都没有，评论别人家的东西居然也能评出优越感来，佩服
动车上买的套餐，其实都是出厂保质期12个月放到微波炉里加热的东西。想想看，保质期12个月米饭！
其实，这些东西在大超市里也有的买，如“鱼香肉丝”套餐，供懒人拿回去作为微波炉食品。
其实，这些东西在大超市里也有的买，如“鱼香肉丝”套餐，供懒人拿回去作为微波炉食品。
现在本来就是新建高铁和改造既有线路并行的嘛。铁路运输成本低，加大投资错不了！
美国的铁路管理好像不怎么样，出轨撞车发生好几次了，有力的支援了中国铁道部，让大家意识到意外即使美国也是无法完全避免的。
对于西方而言，最好的中国应当是永远作为一个廉价的原材料供应地和工业品倾销地，同时政治平庸、军力孱弱、科技无力、社会适度稳定、民众适度温饱；
可是现在的中国，有核武、有航母、有四代机、有载人航天、有高铁、还有钱！这算什么？这还是食物链底端的样子吗？这些都是有罪的！
质疑、羡慕、泛酸、挑刺，最终还是无奈。
可是现在的中国，有核武、有航母、有四代机、有载人航天、有高铁、还有钱！这算什么？这还是食物链底端的样子吗？这些都是有罪的！
质疑、羡慕、泛酸、挑刺，最终还是无奈。
长假期间坐高铁去苏州玩，吃了火车上的盒饭，味道还不错，就是分量有点少，貌似注明的保质期是3天还是5天。
坐了近5个小时有点长，期待提速到380公里。
去时二等，回程一等。一等座比二等座还是舒服的多，多300块钱还能接受。
坐了近5个小时有点长，期待提速到380公里。
去时二等，回程一等。一等座比二等座还是舒服的多，多300块钱还能接受。
中国高铁二等车厢已经非常平民化了，三教九流无所不有，不像欧洲的高铁车厢那么精致。
精英已经开始吐槽了，但我喜欢这样的风格。
精英已经开始吐槽了，但我喜欢这样的风格。
美国的amtrak真心坐不起，比飞机还贵一倍。
服务也不是很好。
服务也不是很好。
经常坐动车往返洛阳西安的路过，次次爆满啊，票真不好买
美国铁路基本没啥希望,完败于航空公司和航空制造商啊!
盲人摸象，就这样的水平，还好意思说是国家地理。
ligand 发表于 2012-10-8 09:55 ![]()
动车上买的套餐，其实都是出厂保质期12个月放到微波炉里加热的东西。想想看，保质期12个月米饭！
其实， ...
超市的微波快餐保质期一般就是一个星期最多半个月。。。。
保质期1年的那是军用野战口粮
动车上买的套餐，其实都是出厂保质期12个月放到微波炉里加热的东西。想想看，保质期12个月米饭！
其实， ...
超市的微波快餐保质期一般就是一个星期最多半个月。。。。
保质期1年的那是军用野战口粮
yu99222 发表于 2012-10-8 09:12 ![]()
正常的，西方所有的派到中国的记者必须“政治正确”，什么是政治“政治正确”？客观公正，自由民主是不可能 ...
你错了，还真就很多中国人相信了...
农民坐不起软座空调
农民坐不起动车
农民坐不起高铁
绿皮最能满足农民需要
正常的，西方所有的派到中国的记者必须“政治正确”，什么是政治“政治正确”？客观公正，自由民主是不可能 ...
你错了，还真就很多中国人相信了...
农民坐不起软座空调
农民坐不起动车
农民坐不起高铁
绿皮最能满足农民需要
瘋‖不思悔改 发表于 2012-10-8 11:01 ![]()
美国铁路基本没啥希望,完败于航空公司和航空制造商啊!
错了，人家阿米利坚的汽车制造商也不是吃素的
美国铁路基本没啥希望,完败于航空公司和航空制造商啊!
错了，人家阿米利坚的汽车制造商也不是吃素的
大米利坚醋厂泄露了吗？
人口差别。可能是中美两国选择不同交通方式的主要原因。
标题的关键是前进，美国人在这个领域的前进在哪里？
tx207 发表于 2012-10-8 09:36 ![]()
同意你的观点，美国连一寸高铁都没有，评论别人家的东西居然也能评出优越感来，佩服
以美国的技术，要修高铁还不是分分秒的事
同意你的观点，美国连一寸高铁都没有，评论别人家的东西居然也能评出优越感来，佩服
以美国的技术，要修高铁还不是分分秒的事
霏菲飞 发表于 2012-10-8 11:56 ![]()
你错了，还真就很多中国人相信了...
农民坐不起软座空调
也许你们那里的农民比较富有、坐得起。我做了这么多年火车，还没在软卧和动车车厢里见过农民工的身影
你错了，还真就很多中国人相信了...
农民坐不起软座空调
也许你们那里的农民比较富有、坐得起。我做了这么多年火车，还没在软卧和动车车厢里见过农民工的身影
彭总关帝神 发表于 2012-10-8 14:53 ![]()
也许你们那里的农民比较富有、坐得起。我做了这么多年火车，还没在软卧和动车车厢里见过农民工的身影
美国修高铁，分分秒秒的事，你可能是美财政部部长，真牛逼。美国人？
也许你们那里的农民比较富有、坐得起。我做了这么多年火车，还没在软卧和动车车厢里见过农民工的身影
美国修高铁，分分秒秒的事，你可能是美财政部部长，真牛逼。美国人？
彭总关帝神 发表于 2012-10-8 14:53 ![]()
也许你们那里的农民比较富有、坐得起。我做了这么多年火车，还没在软卧和动车车厢里见过农民工的身影
美国修高铁，分分秒秒的事，你可能是美财政部部长，真牛逼。美国人？
也许你们那里的农民比较富有、坐得起。我做了这么多年火车，还没在软卧和动车车厢里见过农民工的身影
美国修高铁，分分秒秒的事，你可能是美财政部部长，真牛逼。美国人？
虽然有点酸
还是可以看一看的
另外
湖南没有那么穷
每次坐武广高铁都是爆满
还是可以看一看的
另外
湖南没有那么穷
每次坐武广高铁都是爆满
动车上买的套餐，其实都是出厂保质期12个月放到微波炉里加热的东西。想想看，保质期12个月米饭！ 其实， ...
春秋航空供应的也是这种东西
春秋航空供应的也是这种东西
壮东风 发表于 2012-10-8 10:42 ![]()
中国高铁二等车厢已经非常平民化了，三教九流无所不有，不像欧洲的高铁车厢那么精致。
精英已经开始吐槽了 ...
前几天坐动车，坐旁边的一对“文艺”情侣感慨到：以后还是买一等座吧。:D
中国高铁二等车厢已经非常平民化了，三教九流无所不有，不像欧洲的高铁车厢那么精致。
精英已经开始吐槽了 ...
前几天坐动车，坐旁边的一对“文艺”情侣感慨到：以后还是买一等座吧。:D
学生时代，最害怕坐火车，坐一次火车像生一场大病一样。现在好了，最喜欢坐动车出行。什么时候绿皮车才能全部变成动车啊，我期待那天快点到来。
彭总关帝神 发表于 2012-10-8 14:53 ![]()
也许你们那里的农民比较富有、坐得起。我做了这么多年火车，还没在软卧和动车车厢里见过农民工的身影
因为你的思维就是农民工才是农民，或者穿的像农民工的才是农民...
也许你们那里的农民比较富有、坐得起。我做了这么多年火车，还没在软卧和动车车厢里见过农民工的身影
因为你的思维就是农民工才是农民，或者穿的像农民工的才是农民...