A river of rubbish: the ugly secret threatening China's most beautiful city
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An ‘international tourism destination of peerless beauty’ say the slogans hanging in the streets of Guilin, but one of the scenic city’s rivers has recently been home to sewage and garbage. In a country where environmentalists are charged with anti-government espionage, will the authorities intervene?
be home to....直译就是...的家/所在地。当然在这里如果这么翻译是不妥的，这里可以理解为某个地方一直存在，充斥某种东西，这也给了我们一个新的思路，在表达充满....时，可以用上这个表达。我这里随机造一个句子。Los Angeles is the heaven for the rich, and also home to the homeless. 洛杉矶是富人的天堂，同时也有大量无家可归的人。
environmentalist 环保主义者，也可以用conservationist.
“桂林山水甲天下”的标语在桂林市的街道上随处可见。但最近，这个风景秀丽的城市却饱受河流污染的困扰。在环保人士被指控为反政府人员的大环境之下，相关机构会出面介入污染问题吗？
When Jianjun Xu woke up one morning in May 2015, the ground floor of his house in Gongcheng, Guilin, was flooded. After heavy rainstorms, the nearby Cha River swelled, sweeping away hundreds of homes. “The water was up to my knees,” he says. “It smelled awful and there was garbage floating in my living room.”
徐军（音译）家住桂林市恭城县。2015年5月的一个早晨，他醒来发现自家的一楼被水淹了。由于连日暴雨，附近的岔河泛滥，数百户人家都被淹了。“水漫到膝盖，”他说，“闻着特别臭，我家客厅里都漂着垃圾。”
Xu didn’t understand how the floodwater had reached his street. Anti-flood barriers had been under construction since December 2012. Given the speed of Chinese infrastructure work, he thought the project had been completed. But instead of a construction site, he found a green river, its banks decorated with garbage.
徐建军不明白洪水怎么会漫到他们那条街。防洪屏障2012年12月就开始修了，中国基础设施建设向来很快，他以为早该完工了。没想到施工现场没见着，就看见河都绿了，两岸堆满了垃圾。
Meanwhile, buses choke Guilin’s main boulevards morning and evening. Led by guides, large groups of tourists take selfies in front of local landmarks, such as the imposing Nengren Temple, and stroll the streets of Guilin’s old town and through its spacious parks. In the evening, they gather to enjoy a daily performance of an ancient opera or join local groups of elderly residents who dance to keep fit.
每天早晚高峰，桂林的主干道上都堵满了大巴车。大批游客在导游的带领下纷纷在雄伟的能仁寺等地标景点前自拍留念，然后漫步在桂林老城的街道上，在宽敞的公园里游玩。到了晚上，他们或是聚在一起欣赏传统戏曲表演，或是和当地老人们一起跳一场广场舞。
From a rooftop cafe, one can see the Sun and Moon towers on Fir Lake as the city sprawl continues into the distance, giving way to bright green forests and hills, the stunning landscape Guilin is famous for. Throughout the municipality, red banners emblazoned with slogans like “an international tourism destination of peerless beauty” hang strategically, reminding newcomers of Guilin’s millennia-old reputation as China’s most beautiful city.
市里有家屋顶咖啡店，从那里不仅可以望见杉湖上的日月双塔，还能看到这座城市不断延伸，与远方翠绿色的森林和山丘相接。这就是举世闻名的桂林风光。整座城市随处可见红色横幅，写着类似“桂林山水甲天下”的标语，昭示着数千年来桂林作为中国最美城市的地位。
In nearby Yangshuo and Longsheng, karst peaks dominate a breathtaking landscape. The Li River carries visitors on bamboo rafts through the formations, as water bottles and plastic bits float alongside. Tourism accounted for close to 20% of the city’s economic output in 2015. The local government aims to increase that to over 27% by 2020 as part of their campaign to become China’s ecotourism destination.
阳朔和龙胜附近汇聚了许多令人叹为观止的喀斯特地貌景观。漓江上成队的竹筏载着游客悠悠而过，但他们身边却漂着水瓶和塑料袋。2015年，旅游业占桂林市经济产出近20%，当地政府计划在2020年之前将这一数字提升至27%以上，以此作为其打造中国生态旅游胜地项目的一部分。
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“As a less developed province, much of Guangxi remains a natural landscape,” explains Cheng Zhang, South China programme director at the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “This includes a great number of protected areas, such as nature reserves, forests and wetlands, which provide essential ‘nature’ for conducting ecotourism activities.”
“作为一个欠发展省份，广西保留了大部分的自然景观，”世界自然保护联盟华南项目主管程章（音译）说，“这里面包括了自然保护区、森林、湿地等大量受保护区域，为生态旅游活动的开展提供了必要的‘自然条件’。”
The Guilin municipal government has taken efforts to improve the water quality of the Li River, one of the city’s main attractions. With a $100m (£80m) loan from the World Bank, officials are relocating industries, building wastewater treatment plants and landfills, and fighting pollution. However, the issues of other rivers like the Cha have been overlooked.
taken efforts to 致力于，努力去...
类似表达：make an effort 作出努力 put determined/real/special effort to... 坚决的╱真正的╱特别的努力
overlook忽视，未注意到，（对不良现象等）不予理会，视而不见，类似表达：turn a blind eye to。注意不要把这个词和oversee混淆，oversee表示的是 监管，监察，监督，类似于supervise。我想起自己以前经常把这两个弄混淆了~
桂林市政府已经采取行动，志在改善漓江的水质。政府从世界银行借贷1亿美元，目前正在搬迁沿江工业，并修建污水处理厂和垃圾掩埋场，以抗击污染。但岔河等其他河流的问题并没有得到重视。
“Since leader Deng Xiaoping’s visit in the 1970s, the Li River has been a priority for the government because of its beauty,” says Ma Jun. “However, other rivers in Guilin are suffering from rapid urbanisation and are more polluted and facing challenges. They are in less developed areas with weak sewage management and infrastructure.”
“上世纪70年代邓主席来参观过后，政府为了保留漓江的美景，就已经把那里的保护作为重中之重了，”马军（音译）说，“但桂林其他河流也受到了高速城市化的影响，污染更严重，面临诸多挑战。它们位于欠发展地区，污水管理和基础设施建设都比较薄弱。”
Greenpeace China told the Guardian that one third of the country’s rivers are contaminated. According to a report from the ministry of water resources in April 2016, 80% of shallow ground water wells are also polluted.
绿色和平中国告诉《卫报》，中国三分之一的河流都存在污染问题。根据2016年水利部发布的一篇报告，80%的浅层地下水井也已经被污染。
“In cities, you have wastewater from sewage, shops, factories and agriculture, which add other pollutants like persistent organics and heavy metals. It’s usually not fit for drinking or for crops,” explains Dr Wolfgang Kinzelbach from the Institute of Environmental Engineering in Zurich, Switzerland, an expert on China’s water management.
“在城市里，下水道、商店、工厂、农业部门都会排放污水，里面含有持久性有机物和重金属等其他污染物，这类水不适合人类饮用和作物灌溉”，瑞士苏黎世的环境工程研究所中国水管理问题专家沃尔夫冈·金策尔巴赫博士解释道。
A 2016 study found that the Qingshitan reservoir, an important source of Guilin’s reservoir, was polluted, reporting above average nitrogen and organic carbon content. The report credits agricultural, industrial and domestic sources as the pollution culprits. The results revealed that the water had an intermediate level of eutrophication, an excessive richness of nutrients that causes a dense growth of algae and suffocates animals such as fish. It also turns water green.
2016年一项研究发现，桂林最大的青狮潭水库遭污染，氮和有机碳含量均超过平均值。研究报告认为，农业、工业及生活污水是造成污染的罪魁祸首。结果表明，水体出现中度水平的富营养化，即营养物质过剩，导致藻类密集生长，鱼类等动物窒息。富营养化还会导致水变绿。
“The range of human health impacts from water pollution extends from damage to the reproductive system, birth defects, cancer, sterility, as well as a whole host of neurological and cardiac diseases,” says Dr Devra Davis, an epidemiologist at the Environmental Health Trust. “China is sacrificing a generation because of this pollution issue.”
“水污染对人类健康造成的危害有很多，包括破坏生殖系统，导致先天畸形、癌症、不孕不育，以及一系列神经和心脏疾病，”环境健康基金流行病学家德芙拉·戴维斯博士说。“因为污染，中国正在牺牲这一代人。”
