上海世博会的“遗产” Shanghai: Expo has a transforming effect

No city has ever spent so much money, or expended so much energy, on a World Expo.

从来没有那座城市花这么多钱、耗费这么大精力来举办一届世博会(World Expo)。

Shanghai’s has cost an estimated $55bn, twice as much as the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Now, Expo-weary citizens are asking whether it was all worth it.

据估计，上海花在世博会上的钱多达550亿美元，比2008年北京奥运会(Beijing Olympics)的花费还高出一倍。如今，已对世博会感到厌倦的中国公民纷纷质疑，这一切是否值得。

Coming on the heels of the Olympics, Expo was meant to be Act Two in the lavish rebranding of China – transforming the middle kingdom in the eyes not just of the world but also of its own citizens. Some view it as a kind of victory lap, after the country emerged virtually unscathed from the global financial crisis. Expo 2010 could have an impact, on both Shanghai and China (not to mention on the future of the Expo model), for decades to come.

中国正在不惜重金重塑自身形象，以求改变整个世界和本国公民对“中央王国”的看法。在北京奥运会结束后不久举办的上海世博会，就是这部奢华大戏的第二幕。有人认为，在中国几乎毫发无损地走出全球金融危机后，上海世博会可谓某种形式的庆祝胜利之举。2010年世博会对上海和中国（更不用说世博会未来模式）的影响可能会持续数十年。

The mere notion of splashing out so lavishly on what used to be called World’s Fairs has been out of favour for decades. From the Eiffel Tower to the US superhighway system, Expos have given the world some of its most memorable inventions. But many of the really famous Expos took place in the 19th century, including London in 1851, with its Crystal Palace.

一门心思烧钱办世博的想法，早在几十年前就过时了。世博会过去被称作“World's Fairs”。从埃菲尔铁塔到美国的超级高速公路系统，世博会给世界留下了一些最值得纪念的发明。不过，许多真正闻名遐迩的世博会都是在19世纪举办的，其中包括1851年的伦敦世博会——水晶宫(Crystal Palace)就是在那届世博会建成的。

Shanghai set out to drag Expo into the 21st century. But even government officials admit that no one really knows how much the city has spent on it. No one co-ordinated the expenditure. Official estimates range up to $55bn, but Jones Lang LaSalle, the property services firm, estimates infrastructure investments made or brought forward put the total cost at $95bn.

上海希望把世博会带入21世纪。但就连政府官员也承认，没有人知道上海到底花了多少钱来举办这届世博会。没有人统筹开支。官方的最高估计数字为550亿美元。但房地产服务公司仲量联行(Jones Lang LaSalle)估计，考虑已到位或已拟定的基础设施投资，总支出将为950亿美元。

For that kind of money, Shanghai got a vastly expanded subway system with several new lines, new airport terminals and railway stations, and a crash course in urban beautification that has significantly improved the quality of life in this city of 20m.

靠着这些钱，上海新修了数条地铁线，大举扩建了地铁系统；建造了新的机场航站楼和火车站；并在很短时间内就美化了城市环境，让这座拥有2000万人口的城市生活质量大为改观。

It would be hard to find a corner of the city left untouched: every important street was repaved (sometimes more than once); every building facade repainted by the government (often without informing the owners).

在上海，你很难找到未曾触及的角落：每条重要街道都重铺了路面（有时甚至不止一次），每座建筑物的外墙都经过了政府的重新粉刷（经常都不通知业主）。

But one of the biggest benefits for locals during the Expo has been a virtual ban on above-ground construction. Doubtless that will end, and Shanghai will resume its bad old ways of sinking pylons at midnight and jack-hammering in the wee hours.

但对上海本地人来说，世博会期间享受到的一个最大好处，就是地面建筑作业实际上遭到禁止。毫无疑问，这种局面将会结束，上海终将重现往日的恶劣景象：深夜安装塔架，凌晨风镐轰鸣。

Still, to judge from attendance figures, the event has been a huge success: three weeks before the close, it had already surpassed the 64m people who attended the Osaka world’s fair in 1970, making China’s the largest Expo ever.

不过，按照参观人数判断，本届世博会可谓取得了巨大成功：闭幕三周前，参观人数就已超过1970年大阪世博会的6400万人，使得中国的这届世博会成为有史以来最大的一届世博会。

Everyone credits the authorities with fairly smooth and efficient handling of crowds, which exceeded 1m a day near the end.

政府对庞大参观人群的处置颇为顺畅有效，受到了人们的交口称赞。在世博会接近尾声时，日参观人数超过百万。

“But, overall, people don’t like Expo very much,” says one local observer, who prefers not to be quoted, given official sensitivity to comments about Expo. “If you don’t go to Expo, you will regret it, but if you do go, you will regret it even more,” is a common comment on the Chinese internet.

“但是总体而言，人们不太喜欢世博会，”一位本地观察人士表示。考虑到官方对有关世博会的议论颇为敏感，这位人士希望记者不要提到他的名字。中国互联网上一条常见的评论是：“如果你不去逛世博，你会后悔；如果你去了，你会更后悔。”

Much of that is not the fault of Shanghai. Visitors complain of queueing for as much as nine hours to visit national pavilions whose lavish exteriors are not matched by interiors worthy of such a gargantuan wait. But those pavilions are designed and built by foreign governments (or in the case of the US, foreign companies), not by the Chinese. Unlike the Olympics, where China was meant to strut its stuff for the world, at Expo the world was meant to put on a show for China – and in many cases was found wanting.

许多问题并不是上海的错。参观者抱怨，参观某些国家馆要排队9个小时，而这些展馆的内部陈设与奢华的外表相差甚远，根本不值得等候那么久。但这些展馆的设计方和建设方是外国政府（就美国而言，是外国公司），和中方无关。与中国欲在世界面前大显其能的北京奥运会不同，在世博会这个舞台上，是世界各国欲把自己展示给中国——但许多国家却发现自己力有未逮。

But whatever the shortcomings of some pavilions, the message of Expo – better city, better life – could well live on in greater awareness of green issues, especially among the roughly three-quarters of visitors who came from parts of China outside Shanghai.

尽管一些展馆存在这样那样的不足，但环保议题引起更大关注，很可能会让本届世博会的主题——“城市，让生活更美好”——深入人心，尤其是深深印在中国参观者的脑海里。本届世博会的参观者约有四分之三来自上海之外的中国地区。

Some benefits are even more intangible: visitors from less developed areas were exposed to a crash course in civilised behaviour, thanks to a Shanghai government campaign to eradicate habits such as spitting, queue barging, and smoking in public – all well loved habits throughout China, but increasingly frowned on in more sophisticated cities.

有些好处更加无形：来自欠发达地区的参观者在这里上了一堂文明行为的速成课，这要归功于上海市政府根治随地吐痰、排队加塞以及在公共场所吸烟等恶习的努力——这些恶习在中国各地极为常见，但在一些较发达城市已受到越来越多的诟病。

The tens of thousands of volunteers mobilised for the event could make an even more enduring if intangible mark: posted throughout the city, they set a standard for politeness and friendliness that surprised many accustomed to a more brusque attitude from the Shanghainese, renowned throughout China for being more interested in making money than in charming visitors.

为本届世博会动员的数万名志愿者可能会产生更持久（即使是无形）的影响：值守在上海各地的志愿者们成为礼貌和友好的标杆，让许多对上海人更为粗鲁的态度已经习以为常的人们颇感惊喜——比起让游客感到满意，上海人对赚钱更感兴趣，这一点全中国人都知道。

Some Expos are seminal events: GM at the 1939 New York Expo is credited with inventing the superhighway system that transformed the US less than 20 years later. Whatever else emerges from this Expo, Shanghai will enjoy the benefits of vastly improved infrastructure for decades to come, which could help its ambition to become a global financial centre by 2020.

有些世博会是开创性的盛会：在1939年的纽约世博会上，通用汽车(GM)揽获了发明超级高速公路系统的功劳，在不到20年的时间里，该系统彻底改变了美国的面貌。无论本届世博会涌现出何种新生事物，上海在今后几十年里都将享受到基础设施大幅改善的好处，或将有助于它成就到2020年建成全球金融中心的雄心。

Perhaps it will be one of those Expos that lives in the memories of those that visit them for decades. For $55bn, it had better be.

或许，本届世博会将成为让参观者铭记数十年的世博会之一。为了对得起那550亿美元，它最好做到这一点。