陽朔欲建國家地質公園 提高旅遊競爭力

With both hands gripping a pole, Deng Hongyou rowed a bamboo raft carrying a couple and their 2-year-old daughter down the quiet Yulong River one morning. Hills of karst rock shaped like camel humps and blanketed with plants rose from the banks.

一天上午，鄧宏友（音）雙手緊握着船篙，划着竹筏，載着一對夫婦和他們兩歲的女兒沿平靜的遇龍河而下。河兩岸，喀斯特地貌峯林狀如駝峯，植被繁茂。

“The Yulong River is just as beautiful as the Li River,” said the wiry Mr. Deng, 53, comparing this waterway in southern China with the larger and more famous river nearby. “Here the water is much calmer. If a child falls in, I can jump in and save her. In the Li River, there are too many big boats that create waves.”

“遇龍河和灕江一樣美，”精瘦的鄧宏友說。53歲的他是在比較這條河與附近另一條更大、更有名的江。“這裏的水流要平緩多了。如果小孩落水，我能跳下去救她。但是灕江呢，大船太多，有浪。”

Most Chinese have heard of the Li River, one of the top tourist sites in the country. A row of karst hills along its banks has been immortalized on one side of the 20 renminbi note. Lesser known is the Yulong, which runs to the west and south of the town of Yangshuo. It is a narrower, more bucolic waterway flanked by the same kinds of mountains.

灕江是中國最熱門的旅遊景點之一，大部分中國人都聽說過。20元面值的人民幣的背面，印的就是灕江兩岸的一排喀斯特山峯。流向陽朔鎮西南部的遇龍河則沒那麼有名。這條河更窄、更具田園氣息，不過兩岸的山峯和灕江的同屬一類。

As Mr. Deng put it, each river has its character, which is reflected in the towns associated with them. Like the Yulong River, Yangshuo has a reputation as a laid-back rural haven. For years, it catered to backpackers with its hostels and banana pancake cafes.

正如鄧宏友說的那樣，兩條江河各具特色，而這些特色也反映在它們流經的城鎮上。和遇龍河一樣，陽朔享有鄉間的悠閒勝地的聲譽。多年來，這裏的旅館和供應香蕉薄餅的餐吧迎來了無數揹包客。

The Li is more closely tied to the bustling city of Guilin, a magnet for package tourists and the place that the Chinese government has long promoted to the world as one of the most beautiful places in the country. From Guilin, large and loud motorized tour boats ply the Li.

灕江更多地讓人想到熙熙攘攘的桂林。那裏對跟團的遊客頗具吸引力。長期以來，中國政府一直向全世界宣傳桂林，稱其是中國最美的地方之一。在桂林，不斷有喧鬧的大型機動遊船在灕江上行駛。

Now, the government of Yangshuo County is looking to push the Yulong River and Yangshuo, the county seat, into the spotlight. Officials here crave the prominence that Guilin and the Li River have had for decades.

如今，陽朔縣政府正打算推動遇龍河及縣政府所在地陽朔鎮成爲焦點。這裏的官員渴望獲得桂林市區和灕江幾十年來享有的聲望。

They have asked the central government to designate the area around the Yulong River as the Yulong National Geological Park in order, the proposal says, “to better protect these geological relics gifted by nature.”

他們請求中央政府把遇龍河周邊地區定爲遇龍國家地質公園。申報材料稱，這麼做是爲了“更好地對這些大自然饋贈的地質遺蹟進行保護”。

No corner of China outside of the Yangshuo area better embodies the imagined landscape of the country — karst hills, bamboo groves, rice paddies and villages, all occasionally wreathed in mist. Children bike to school along narrow dirt lanes. Farmers lead water buffalo through the wet fields. It is a traditional Chinese painting come to life.

在中國，沒有哪個地方比陽朔更適合當作中國美景的象徵——喀斯特峯林、竹林、稻田和村莊，偶爾還會籠罩着一層薄霧。孩童沿着窄窄的土路騎車上學。農民牽着水牛在水田裏勞作。這是一幅活的傳統國畫。

County officials unveiled their plan in May and have not released details, so local residents and workers are unsure what changes would take place should the national-park designation be approved by Beijing. But some speak of the proposal with pride.

陽朔縣的官員在今年5月公佈了他們的計劃，但尚未透露細節。因此，當地的居民和工作人員不確定，如果國家公園的申報獲批，會發生什麼變化。但一些人在說到這次申報時頗爲驕傲。

“Most people who visit Guilin come to Yangshuo only if they have time,” said Li Zilong, general manager of Yangshuo Resort, on a bank of the Yulong. “If Yangshuo has a national park, maybe people will recognize that Yangshuo is as beautiful as Guilin and will know that people should spend more time here. A national park shows that experts recognize the value of Yangshuo.”

“去桂林旅遊的大部分人，有時間纔會來陽朔，”建在遇龍河岸邊的陽朔河畔度假酒店總經理李自龍（音）說。“如果陽朔有了國家公園，可能人們就會認識到陽朔和桂林一樣美，知道應該在這裏多待一段時間。國家公園表明專家認可陽朔的價值。”

County officials “want to build better roads so that more visitors will come,” he said. “We are all for that because once a tourism zone is built up, more visitors will come, and those visitors will attract more visitors. The government will also do some marketing.”

縣裏的官員“想把路修得更好，這樣就會有更多遊客來，”他說。“我們都很支持，因爲一旦建起旅遊區，就會有更多遊客來。政府也會做一些營銷。”

The profiles of Yangshuo and the Yulong River have been on the rise in recent years. In the 1990s, Yangshuo became a major hangout spot on the backpacker trail through China. Those travelers, most of them foreigners, lingered at restaurants and teahouses on a quiet street in the middle of town, while Chinese and outsiders on package tours preferred to stay in plush hotels in Guilin.

近年來，陽朔和遇龍河的影響一直在提升。90年代，陽朔成爲揹包客的中國旅行路線上的重要一站，而那些旅行者大多是外國人。當時，小鎮中心有一條安靜的街道，他們在那裏的餐館和茶館裏流連忘返。相對而言，中國人和跟團旅遊的外國人，則更喜歡住在桂林的豪華酒店裏。

In the 2000s, as the domestic tourism industry in China boomed, so did Yangshuo’s. Midrange hotels and even a few luxury ones sprouted throughout the town, as well as in nearby villages and on the banks of the Yulong.

到了2000年代，隨着中國國內旅遊業的繁榮，陽朔的旅遊業也蓬勃發展。在整個陽朔鎮，以及附近的村子和遇龍河兩岸，紛紛出現了中檔旅館，甚至還有幾家豪華酒店。

The area has also attracted young Chinese wanting to decamp from cities to lead a simpler life.

該地區也吸引了中國的一些年輕人。他們想逃離城市，過更簡單的生活。

“There was a lot of pressure at work,” said Li Chunhua, 32, who opened Little House Cafe near the east bank of the Yulong a year ago after leaving his job at an export company in Shanghai. “A lot of people from Beijing and Shanghai have moved here to get away from the cities and from all the stress.”

“工作壓力很大，”32歲的李春華（音）說。一年前，他從上海的一家出口公司辭職，在遇龍河東岸附近開了一家咖啡館。“很多人從北京和上海來到這裏，想擺脫城市和所有的壓力。”

Outside his cafe, rice fields glistening with water stretched from a roadway to a bank of the Yulong. Farmers with bamboo hats stood bent over in the paddies.

在他的咖啡館外，稻田從路邊一直蔓延至遇龍河岸邊。水田裏波光粼粼。在田間，戴着竹帽的農民彎腰勞作。

Other parts of the Yangshuo area have become more crowded as tourism has risen. At night in Yangshuo, thousands of visitors flock to a riverbank to watch a sound-and-light show created with the help of Zhang Yimou, China’s most famous film director, and featuring legions of dancers in ethnic costumes.

隨着旅遊業的發展，陽朔地區的其他地方也變得更加擁擠。在陽朔，晚上會有成千上萬名遊客涌向河邊，觀看聲光表演。演出是在中國最著名的導演張藝謀的幫助下創作出來的，過程中會出現很多身穿民族服飾的舞蹈演員。

On a recent afternoon, dozens of tourists took pictures of each other in a field of lavender where someone had erected large, white letters that spell “love.”

前不久的一天下午，有人在一片薰衣草花田裏豎起了巨大的白色字母，拼成了單詞“love”。幾十名遊客在這片花田裏給彼此拍照。

Though Yangshuo County agencies did not respond to requests for interviews, the park proposal suggests a sense of rivalry with Guilin and the Li River. In it, officials note that while Guilin and the Li River were designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations last year, Yangshuo County was named as having the single best karst landscape by Chinese National Geographic magazine. The proposal also insists a section of Yangshuo named Grape Town falls within the World Heritage Site.

儘管陽朔縣相關機構未回覆採訪請求，但國家公園的申報材料表現出了與桂林其他地區和灕江競爭的感覺。在申報材料中，官員指出，儘管桂林和灕江去年被聯合國列入了《世界遺產名錄》(World Heritage Site)，但陽朔縣也被《中國國家地理》雜誌列爲最美的喀斯特峯林。申報材料還堅持認爲，陽朔縣下轄的葡萄鎮位於被列入《世界遺產名錄》的地區範圍以內。

The proposal has supporters among provincial scholars of tourism, who say that Guilin and Yangshuo and their two rivers should be regarded as equals.

這一建議在廣西旅遊學者中不乏支持者，他們表示，桂林和陽朔，灕江和遇龍河，應該被同等看待。

“Guilin has been a metropolis since the Tang dynasty and has the best preserved Ming dynasty houses,” said Yang Yongde, founder of the Tourism Research Institute at Guangxi University. “Yangshuo has authentic rural villages and fields. The two complement each other and are inseparable.”

“桂林自唐代以來就一直是大都市，它有保存最完好的明代建築，”廣西大學旅遊科學研究所(現爲廣西西大旅遊科學研究院——譯註)創建人楊永德說道。“而陽朔有原汁原味的鄉村和田野風光。這兩個地方可以互補，是不可分的。”

The granting of national park status to the Yulong River and its surrounding villages “will give Yangshuo and Guilin more equal status on the average tourist’s itinerary,” Mr. Yang said. He noted that nearly 14 million visitors came to Yangshuo last year, and their average length of stay was just over two days. If the Yulong received national park status, that figure could increase to three days, Mr. Yang said.

授予遇龍河及其周邊村莊以國家公園的地位，“將使遊客在陽朔停留的平均時間和桂林的更接近，”楊永德說。他還指出，去年陽朔接待了近1400萬遊客，他們停留的平均天數只有2天多。如果遇龍河成爲國家公園，這個數字可能會增加到3天。

China has yet to establish a national park system that prioritizes conservation, so it is unclear what ecological rules would apply to a “national geological park.”

中國還沒有建立起可以明確環境保護優先級別的國家公園制度，所以目前並不清楚有哪些生態保護規則適用於一個“國家地質公園”。

A manager at Yangshuo Mountain Retreat, a long-established riverside lodge, pointed to a map and said that she had heard the area would be blocked off to outside traffic, and that people entering would have to pay a ticket fee at several booths on the roads. Villages and hotels would be enclosed in the tourist zone.

陽朔勝地酒店是一家經營多年的濱河酒店，這家酒店的一位經理指着地圖上的一片區域講，她聽說這個地區會被圈起來，不準外來車輛出入，進入這一區域的人需要在路上好幾個售票點買票。那裏的村莊和旅館也會被劃入旅遊區。

Standing on his bamboo raft as it floated past karst hills, Mr. Deng said that the national park, if it comes to pass, would no doubt attract more people to Yangshuo. “They will hear about the Yulong,” he said. “Where else can you take this kind of a ride on a raft? Not on the Li River.”

竹筏沿河飄流，經過兩旁的喀斯特地貌山丘。站在筏上的鄧宏友表示，如果有關國家公園的申請獲得通過，肯定會吸引更多遊客來陽朔。“他們會聽人說起遇龍河，”他說。“哪兒還有地方能讓你享受這樣的竹筏遊？灕江上是不行的。”