主：Welcome to our studio. My first question is: how many years have you been in China?

　　賓：三年多了。我是2002年5月底來的。

　　主：3 years. I bet you have witnessed a lot of changes in China. Could you tell us your deepest impression of urban development in China?

　　賓：我恐怕只能就我所在的城市談談經(jīng)驗，不過從周邊城市的所見所聞，我也會有同樣的看法。所有的外國人都非常清楚地看到，中國和中國的許多城市都在快速地發(fā)展。我想在東部沿海城市更是如此。到處矗立著嶄新的高樓大廈，馬路變得更加寬敞。

　　主：What do you think of all these tall buildings and the widened roads? Do you think that these are signs of modernization? Are all these changes good?

　　賓：這個問題提得好，但是我覺得這是個相當復雜的問題。

　　主：Why is it complicated?

　　賓：這個問題得從兩個不同角度來談。一方面是我作為一個外國人所期待的…… 我想看的，我感興趣的和中國人想看的或者想讓我看的肯定是不一樣的。另一方面就是現(xiàn)代化與舊城文化保護相互沖突的問題。

　　主：Then let’s see what are the differences between a foreigner’s expectations and what the Chinese would like to see.

　　賓：這個問題看來最好這么來談，一般情況下，中國朋友帶我們參觀城市的時候，都是帶我們?nèi)タ船F(xiàn)代建筑，比如機場、大橋、會展中心等等城市里最新的東西。但是外國人對老城區(qū)、小街小巷、古舊建筑更感興趣，也就是那些使這個城市有別于我們所看過的其他城市的東西。一個外國人到過的其他地方可能比一般中國人多，所見過的機場和橋梁對他們來說沒什么太大的不同，但是西安的廟宇他們就覺得有別于法國的教堂，更重要的是，中國城市的老房子更有別于英國城市里的老房子。

　　主：That is to say, foreigners are interested in the things unique in China, but there is a contradiction between modernization and preservation, as you mentioned just now from another perspective. The space of a city is limited; the old part of the city should be reconstructed, and in fact the new buildings are symbols of the prosperity of a city. Isn’t this a good thing?

　　賓：當然，繁榮與發(fā)展對你們來說是很重要的，對我們也是很重要(你們認為發(fā)展很重要，我也這么看)。問題是當一個國家發(fā)展的時候，人民的生活水平也隨之提高，甚至可能提高很快。他們需要讓別人看到這種變化的事實。你們似乎忽略了，對以前的事物需要加以保護，不止是保護那些廟宇或者宮殿，而且應該保護人們居住的房屋，保護老城區(qū)的原貌。文化遺產(chǎn)一旦遭到破壞，你們是無法挽回這種損失的。

　　主：You are quite right. People nowadays are starting to realize the importance of the preservation of heritage. Some local governments are making great effort to deal with the contradiction between development and preservation. Well, because of the limitation of the time, I’m afraid we have to stop now. Thank you ever so much for your coming to discuss this topic with us. We hope you’ll come again.