与西方城市相比，中国城市是什么样的?

原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻译：龟兔赛跑转载请注明出处

Matthew Hartzell,
I have to say at the outset that this question is overly broad. There are differences between Chinese cities, and between neighborhoods within Chinese cities. As for “Western” cities, the differences are even greater, since “The West” encompasses a broad array of nations spread across far-flung corners of the planet.

回答这个问题之前不得不说下，这个问题问得有点过于宽泛。中国城市之间以及中国城市内部的社区之间都存在着差异。至于西方城市，差异只会更大，因为分布在地球遥远角落的那一系列国家所在位置都叫西方。

Honestly, Chinese cities contain multitudes. What they are like depends on what part of the city you are talking about, when it was built, who lives there, and what the function of the neighborhood is. In some Chinese cities you can find narrow alleys

老实说，中国的城市里有很多人。他们是什么样的取决于你在谈论城市的哪个部分，城市什么时候建的，谁住在那里，以及社区的功能是什么。在中国的一些城市，你可以看到在狭窄的小巷两旁是密集的老房子，那些都是普通工人的家，在房子外面停放着自行车以及晾晒着衣物。

ined with dense, older housing, home to working class people, with bicycles parked outside and laundry hanging out to dry:
Nearly all older, working class neighborhoods in Chinese cities are within walking distance of a “wet market” where you can buy fresh produce and freshly butchered meat. These folks have little need for modern supermarkets.

在中国城市里，那些老旧的工人社区都会有一个始终潮湿的步行街道，在那里你可以买到新鲜的农产品和新鲜的肉类。这些人几乎不需要去现代超市购物。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

“Urban villages” are a common feature in many Chinese cities. Formerly agricultural villages, they urbanized and densified when the city footprint expanded to surround them

“城中村”是中国许多城市的共同特征。实际上就是当城市化推进到以前的农村周围后，这些农村随着农村人口的集中化也开始城市化，从而演变为城中村。

In other parts of Chinese cities, you might find ultra-modern architecture, luxury shopping centers, fashionable high-rises, and whimsical public art:A number of Chinese cities were essentially colonized by England, France, Germany, Japan, or Russia during the 19th century. In those cities, the foreign colonizers left their imprint in architecture that still stands today. Today, these “foreign style” streets are often Chinese hipster districts full of bars and coffeeshops.

在中国城市某部分区域，你可能会发现超现代的建筑、奢华的购物中心、时尚的高层建筑和异想天开的公共艺术。这些建筑都是外国殖民者在城市里留下的印记，至今仍然屹立不倒。（在19世纪时候，中国许多城市被英国、法国、德国、日本或俄罗斯所殖民。）如今，这些“洋风格”的街道往往是酒吧和咖啡店集中的中国时尚街区。

One feature common to every Chinese city is at least one “walking street” which is similar to the “high street” common to most European cities, and is home to major brand name shops.
At Chinese New Year, Chinese cities transform themselves much as Western cities do at Christmastime, with colorful decorations everywhere:
It’s very common to find traditional elements in Chinese cities, such as temples and gates 。

每个中国城市有一条“步行街”，与大多数欧洲城市 “商业街”相似，是主要品牌商店的所在地。
在中国过新年期间，中国的城市会如同西方的城市在圣诞节期间装扮自己一样，到处张灯结彩。
在中国的城市中最常见的传统元素，就是寺庙和大门。

It’s not uncommon to find the old and new mixed in the same urban tableau.If you were to travel back to 500 years ago, you’d find that, apart from differences in architectural styles, Chinese cities and “Western” cities (i.e. European cities) were quite similar, in both form and function.

在同一个城市可以经常发现现代建筑和传统建筑混合在一起。如果追溯到500年前，你会发现，除了建筑风格的差异，中国城市和西方城市（即欧洲城市），建筑格局和功能上都非常相似。

In the pre-modern era, the majority of people in both China and Europe lived in rural areas and engaged in agricultural work (usually some form of serfdom). Only a minority of people (around 10%) lived in cities. These were traders, merchants, and the military, religious and political elite. Both European and Chinese cities were typically surrounded by defensive walls, and located along rivers or coastlines. The cities were densely inhabited and compact , small enough to walk from one end to the other in less than a day. Streets were narrow, wide enough for pedestrians and horses.

在进入现代化以前，中国和欧洲的大多数人都生活在农村，从事农业工作（通常是某种形式的农奴制）。只有少数人（约10%）住在城市。这些人是商人、军人、宗教和政治精英。欧洲和中国的城市通常都被城墙包围，并位于护城河内。这些城市人口密集，占地面积小到从一头走到另一头甚至用不了一天时间。城市街道狭窄，仅仅足够行人和马匹通行。

Here are some examples of traditional Chinese urban form that still exists today.
Lijiang old town. Although much of the old town was destroyed in an earthquake in 1996 and most of the “old-looking” buildings today are in fact modern reproductions, the historic maze-like urban form has been preserved, much to the delight of the millions of tourists who stroll through its cobblestone lanes every year.

以下是至今仍然存在的中国传统城市形态的例子。丽江古城，尽管在1996年的一次地震中，老城区的大部分被摧毁，如今大多数“看上去很旧”的建筑实际上都是现代复制品，但这座有历史的迷宫状的城市形态仍然保留下来，每年都会有数百万游客心情愉悦地在这些一直保存原样的鹅卵石小道上漫步。

Chinese and Western cities began to diverge in the 19th century when twin processes of industrialization and urbanization played out in tandem. With the introduction of railroads, and later automobiles, Western cities rapidly expand behind their pre-modern footprints into newly built suburbs (sometimes known as “streetcar suburbs”). No longer was the city limited in size to the distance one could walk in a day’s time. At the same time, transformations in the political economy of western nations meant more and more people were moving to cities in search of opportunity. At the turn of the 20th century, the progressive political movement played out in cities as the birth of modern urban planning, with the “City Beautiful” movement promoting the public goods of infrastructure, sewers, public parks, and mass transit.

中西方城市在19世纪开始发展不同步了，在当时的西方，工业化和城市化齐头并进。随着铁路和后来的汽车的引入，西方城市的现代化进程迅速扩展到新建的郊区（有时被称为“有轨电车郊区”）。从此一座城市的规模不再局限于一天步行的距离。与此同时，伴随西方国家政治经济结构的转型，越来越多的人搬到城市寻找机会。20世纪初，随着现代城市的诞生，政治运动在城市中展开，“美好城市”运动促进了基础设施、下水道、公园和公共交通等公共设施的发展。

All the while, as Western cities were growing in population, area, and prosperity, Chinese cities remained in a state of arrested development. At the turn of the 20th century, China was still governed by the weak Qing Dynasty, and the majority of its people were peasants residing in rural villages. There was some early efforts at urban modernization in China at this time. The governments of Germany, France, England, and Russia managed sections of Chinese cities known “concessions” extracted from the weak Qing government, and in these areas they introduced modern architecture, gridiron street networks, sewers, and streetcars. But then China was plunged into a half century of chaos, with the Xinhai Revolution, the Warlord era, World War II, and the Communist-National Civil War.

西方城市在人口、面积和繁荣方面不断提高，此时中国城市却处于发展停滞状态。20世纪初，中国仍处于清朝的统治之下，大多数人是农村的农民。在这个时期，中国在城市现代化方面处于萌芽阶段。有些城市被称为“租界”，他们是德国、法国、英国和俄罗斯从软弱的清政府那里获得并直接管理，在这些地区，他们引进了现代建筑、网格街道、下水道和有轨电车。但随后中国陷入了半个世纪的混乱期，在这期间经过辛亥革命、军阀时代、第二次世界大战和中国内战。

It’s fair to say that in 1976, at the time of Mao’s death, the contrast between Chinese cities and their Western counterparts was the starkest in history. At this point, Western cities had undergone the upheaval of modernism, reached majority urbanization, and were already entering with a new era of consumer industry-led post-modernism, deindustrialization, A visitor to a Chinese city at this same point in time, on the other hand, would have found that little had changed in 100 years. That same visitor would have founds streets devoid of cars, and filled instead with bicycles. All of that would change rapidly at the helm of China’s new, market-led leadership under Deng Xiaoping.

可以说，1976年之后时，中国城市与西方城市的对比是历史上最鲜明的。此时，西方城市已经经过现代化的建设，达到了大多数城市化的程度，并且已经进入了一个以消费业为主导的后现代、去工业化的新时代。另一方面，如果游客在此时去中国城市旅游，也会发现中国城市近100年来几乎没有什么变化。同样会发现街道上没有汽车，只有随处可见的自行车。所有这些都将在中国改革开放迅速改变。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

Housing is one area where Chinese cities diverge significantly from Western cities. The vast majority of housing in Chinese cities is in the form of apartment buildings. In this, the divergence between Chinese cities and American cities is more acute than that between Chinese cities and European cities. Single-family homes (literally, “mansions” in Chinese) are rare and extremely rare. Moreover, most Chinese cities mandate that single-family homes are only allowed in the distant suburbs far outside the city center.

住房是中国城市与西方城市明显不同的一个领域。中国城市的绝大多数住房都是公寓大楼。在这一点上，中国城市和美国城市之间的差异比中国城市和欧洲城市之间的差异更为巨大。独栋住宅（中文意为“豪宅”）非常罕见。此外，大多数中国城市规定，独栋住宅只能在远离市中心的远郊区使用。

Apartment housing in China can be divided into two main types: socialist era danwei apartments and market era apartment high-rises. Socialist era housing dates from the 1950s - 1980s. Residents did not pay any rents. Apartments were provided for free by one’s work unit. That said, conditions were poor and a large family (remember, this is before the one child policy was instituted) could expect to share cramped living space. Apartment buildings were functionalist and minimalist, with unfinished concrete facades, and a uniform walkup height of seven stories. Most of these apartments lacked kitchen and bathroom facilities, residents relied on shared common facilities instead.

我国的公寓式住宅可分为两大类型：计划经济时代的单位集资公寓和市场经济时代的高层公寓。计划经济时代的集资住房可以追溯到20世纪50-80年代，居民不付房租。公寓由工作单位免费提供。也就是说，条件很差，可能一个大家庭共享狭小的生活空间（记住，这是在独生子女政策实施之前）。公寓建筑是功能主义者和极简主义者，有未完工的混凝土外墙，统一的楼层高度为7层。这些公寓大多缺乏私人厨房和浴室设施，居民则依赖共用的公共设施。

Wang Sisuo,
To be honest, I am sick of all those night view city pictures of China. Can’t you guys find something different? It really looks like propaganda to me now if you keep doing this.

老实说，我讨厌看那些中国夜景城市的照片。你们找不到不一样的东西吗？如果你继续这样拍城市夜景的话，在我看来就像是做宣传。

Having traveled to more than 600 cities in the world. I think what attracted me the most about Chinese cities are not those high rises. They actually look quite ugly in most cases, if you put them in a daylight picture. Even though they are getting a lot better these days.

我去过世界上600多个城市。我认为中国城市最吸引我的不是那些高楼大厦。因为如果你在白天拍照的话，尽管他们现在好多了，它们在大多数情况下还是很难看。
What is interesting is the human atmosphere (人气） and total unpredictability of what you may come across in the street in China. You are rarely bored walking in the street as you can always see people. They are doing all sorts of odd things that you would not see in a lot of western cities. If you were an amateur photographer, you will realise that Chinese cities are heaven for street photographs as you end up getting much more entertaining photos.
有趣的是，中国的人文氛围（人气）和你在街上可能遇到的一些事，这些都不可预测的。你在街上散步很少会感到无聊，因为你总能看到人们在做各种奇怪的事情，而这些在西方很多城市都看不到。如果你是一个业余摄影师，你会意识到中国城市是街拍的天堂，因为你最终会得到很多的娱乐性照片。

Another is the convenience for daily life. Using breakfast as an example. You just get downstairs and can easily find a breakfast place within short walking distance. You can eat a good quality meal without spending much money at a pretty random small restaurant. What is more, you can have at least dozens of choices if it is not a hundred. If you try to do the same in London, which is way more convenient than many western cities, it is just not possible. You have very limited choices. Most of the places offering decent breakfast are chain stores and it costs a lot for some boring stuff. In China, Starbuck and Costas are two of a hundred you can choose from just out of your door.

另一方面是便利的日常生活方式。以早餐为例。你只要下楼然后步行很短距离就可以找到一个吃早餐的地方。你可以在一个相当随意的小餐馆里吃一顿质量好的饭菜，并且不用花很多钱。更重要的是，你有很多选择，没有一百个也有好几十个选择范围。这比许多西方城市方便得多，如果你想在伦敦做同样的事，那是不可能的。在伦敦吃早餐你的选择非常有限。几乎都是连锁店在提供早餐，不好吃还贵。在中国，星巴克（Starbuck）和Costas（Costas）只是200家你可以选择的餐厅之一。
What is important about 人气 is that people are social animals. You often see movies talking about American middle class neighborhoods which would suck the real life out of any men and women who do not want to suffer from boredom. In China, you may also have some rich Chinese wanting to have an American house and car, freedom of speech and guns. But after the initial excitement, they tend to return to China quietly and make their big American houses a holiday home. It is not only because it is easier to earn money in China, which is of course very important.
重要的是人是群居动物。你经常在电影看到美国中产阶级社区，那里聚集着所有不想遭受无聊的生活方式的男人和女人。在中国，也会有一些富裕的中国人想要美国的房子和汽车......。但在最初的兴奋过后，他们往往会安静地回到中国，把他们的美国大房子当作度假之家。不仅是因为在中国挣钱更容易，这当然非常重要。

People often forget that boredom can kill as well. It makes people depressed, feel less energetic and age faster as a result. Boredom turns youngsters into antisocial gangsters, boredom makes adults want to escape, boredom makes people hungry for bad news about other countries and boredom makes war exciting. In Chinese cities, you experience dynamism, and you can observe lives being lived around you. You cannot envisage what’s going on at the next corner of the street you are walking in, not to mention envisage life after five or ten years. But so many Western cities do not even change for centuries. If you have a stable job, a home and you can more or less see the end of your life.

人们常常忘记无聊也会害死人。它会让人沮丧，感觉精力不足，因此衰老得更快。无聊使年轻人变成反社会的黑帮分子，无聊使成年人想逃离，无聊使人们渴望听到有关其他国家的坏消息，无聊使战争变得令人兴奋。在中国的城市里，你充满着活力，你可以观察周围的人的生活。你想象不到下一个街角正在发生的事情，更不用说想象五年或十年后的生活了。但西方大多数城市几百年来都没有改变。如果你有一份稳定的工作，一个家，你可以或多或少地看到你生命的尽头。

Zhang Zhiheng,
Most western cities in Chinese eyes are just small towns, some of them are neat and clean but anyway they are too small to be called a city in China.

在中国人眼中，大多数西方城市只是小城镇，有些城市虽然整洁干净，但无论如何，它们太小了，不能称之为中国类似的城市。

No matter in which tier, Chinese in cities want to have city lives, which means, crowded streets and 24 hour open shops and entertainments. We live in cities to hang around with the others, not to stay at home with family all nights, which is a typical villliage life in China!

不管人们在哪一个经济阶层，只要在城市里生活，都想拥有城市化生活方式，也就是说，有着拥挤的街道和24小时开放的商店和娱乐场所。我们生活在城市里是为了和别人一起闲逛，而不是如典型的农村生活一样和家人整晚都呆在家里。

That’s why Chinese people moved to foreign cities always complaint their boring night lives and all inconveniences. One of my friend even describe Los Angel as “the biggest villliage”.

这就是为什么华侨总是抱怨他们无聊的夜生活和所有的不便。我的一个朋友甚至形容洛杉矶是“最大的村庄”。

The biggest village, Los angel

最大的村庄，洛杉矶。

Except CBD, most area are covered by low density society and almost dark in the night

除中央商务区外，大部分地区都是低密度社会，夜晚几乎漆黑一片。
魔都 the magic city,Shanghai
魔都上海

Endless skyscrapers and as bright as daytime at night.

到处是摩天大楼和明亮如白昼的夜晚。

Peter Moore,
In my experience, they are pretty much the same. If you cherry pick, you can emphasize the differences, like show Guangzhou vs Budapest, or a shitty part of Chengdu vs a nice part of London, or vice versa. But you can make Rome look like Beijing, Vancouver look like Hong Kong, etc,

以我的经验，它们几乎是一样的。如果你精心挑选，你可以强调不同之处，比如广州和布达佩斯，或者成都的一个烂地方和伦敦的一个好地方，反之亦然。但是你可以让罗马看起来像北京，温哥华看起来像香港等等。

the biggest differences?
typical size. Chinese cities tend to be much higher in population, and they have infrastructure trying to deal with it

最大的区别？
城市规模。中国城市的人口占比往往要高得多，而且他们的基础设施也在逐步满足这一问题。

David W. Budd,
Honestly, it’s difficult to compare “western” cities (which are very diverse - look at Houston, Texas, Manhattan, Paris, and London - which one is the “western” city you would compare) and “Chinese” cities, which also are diverse. Beijing, Shanghai, and now Shenzen are not similar in many ways

老实说，很难比较西方城市（非常多样化——看看休斯顿、得克萨斯、曼哈顿、巴黎和伦敦——你会比较哪个是西方城市呢）和中国城市，它们也是多样化的。北京、上海和现在的深圳在很多方面并不相似。

There are two fundamental problems.
First is the sheer size of China. It is a nation of 1.4 billion people. By comparison, the largest “western” country is the US, which is 330 million. China is five times larger (by population) than the biggest western country.

有两个基本问题。
首先是中国的庞大规模。它是一个拥有14亿人口的国家。相比之下，最大的西方国家是美国，为3.3亿。中国的人口是最大的西方国家的五倍。

As a result, just about everything is bigger in China. The cities are larger and more crowded. Also, the development in China over the past 35 years has been nothing short of spectacular. And most of it (though not all) is concentrated around the large, coastal cities. As a result, China’s urbanised population has been transformed. In just the past 15 years, the urban population has grown by 40 per cent (China: urban and rural population 2017 ) and is now 820 million. This number is roughly the same as the US and EU combined total population.

因此，中国的一切都变得更大。城市更大，更拥挤。而且，过去35年来，中国的发展也非常惊人。其中大部分（尽管不是全部）集中在沿海大城市。还有中国的城市化人口发生了变化。在过去15年中，中国城市人口增长了40%，目前为8.2亿。这一数字与美国和欧盟人口总数之和大致相同。

China is HUGE. And it is a place where the cities now predominate. As a result, China has a number of massive urban super cities.

中国是个大国。这是一个城市占主导地位的地方。因此，中国有许多大型城市超级城市。

Second, China’s super cities are relatively ‘new.’ This is of course ironic, as the big cities of China have been around for 2000 (or more) years.

第二，中国的超级城市相对来说比较“新”。这当然是讽刺的，因为中国的大城市已经存在了2000年（或更久）了。

But as China has been transformed by the CCP, it has virtually remade its cities. In Beijing, a city that has for 3000 years, development has meant that many of the old hu tongs have been seized and demolished to make way for glittering skyscrapers. The infrastructure is less than 20 years old. So of course, the central business districts look like scenes from a science fiction movie.

但随着中国的转变，中国实际上已经重新改造了城市。在北京这个有着3000年历史的城市，发展意味着许多老胡同被没收和拆除，它们为闪闪发光的摩天大楼让路。基础设施还不到20年。当然，中央商业区看起来就像科幻电影里的场景。

It remains to be seen what these glass and steel palaces will look like in 50–100 years (about the age of many of the skyscrapers of the west).

这些玻璃和钢制的宫殿在50-100年后会是什么样子（大约相当于西方许多摩天大楼的年龄）还有待观察。

But for now, to compare “Chinese” cities to those of the west, they are generally larger, more crowded, and “newer,” at least in the parts that have been developed.

但就目前而言，对比中国城市与西方城市，中国城市通常更大、更拥挤和“更新”，至少在已开发的地区是这样。