Michael Meyers melancholy last days of old Beijing is the most sustained and influential polemic,
迈克尔·梅耶斯的,老北京的最后岁月,其论点最持久,最负影响的
earning a Wall Street Journal Best Book award and a rank of 67,000 in the Barnes and Noble best seller list.
获得华尔街日报最佳书籍奖并排名67000,那是在邦诺书局的畅销书排行榜上
So, I came to Beijing in August 2009 fearing the worst.
所以我2009年8月来北京时预想着最坏的情景
On my second day I revisited a street in the Sanlitun embassy district that in 2005 had featured a 200 year old guest house,
第二天我重游了一条街,那是在三里屯使馆区,那里2005年的时候曾有一个200年历史的会馆
expat' bar with $1 beers and a topclass sushi restaurant with a sack for a door and a corrugated iron roof.
外国风格的酒吧,卖一美元的啤酒,顶级寿司店,麻布做的门,瓦楞的铁屋顶
And all I could find were glitzy clothing boutiques and electronics malls.
但我看到的只有华丽的服饰店,还有电子商品商场
Perhaps Beijing had become a concrete forest.
也许北京确实变成了水泥森林
And yet now that I've been walking and cycling around off beat, as well as gentrified, neighborhoods for 18 months,
然而我在这个城市里无方向地行走,骑车,也在翻新的房屋和街区逛了一年半
I'm optimistic to the extent that I believe Beijing is a rough diamond of a city, which central planners, developers, conservators and residents alike
我比较乐观,认为北京像一块未经雕琢的钻石,政府的规划,开发商,保护者和居民
are polishing into what may soon become one of the world's richest and most dazzling urban cultures.
都来打磨雕琢这个城市,也许在不远的将来会成为世界上最富饶和绚丽的城市文化之一
To illustrate my contetion,which I should stres stand primarily on anecdotal observation, like the photographs I'll share with you today.
为了阐述我的观点,我还应该强调一下它主要是基于我的人文观察,比如我与你们分享的照片