消失的長城

The Great Wall in northern China cannot be seen with the naked eye from high orbit above the Earth or from the moon, as some people believe. For centuries, those who have wanted to see the wall have had to make a trip to Asia to lay eyes on one of the greatest surviving artificial structures in the world.

有人認為，無論是從地球高軌道上，抑或從月球之上，肉眼都無法把中國北部的萬里長城收入眼簾。在過去的世紀，欲一睹萬里長城之貌者只能通過游歷亞洲，來見識這座世界最偉大的人類建筑之一。

These days, though, there is less of it to see, according to an article in The Beijing Times that cites local officials, statistics and a Great Wall scholar. The article, which appeared on Sunday, said that 22 percent of what was considered the Ming dynasty Great Wall had disappeared. And the total length of the parts of the wall that have vanished, 1,961 kilometers, or 1,219 miles, is equal to about 30 percent of the artificial part of the Great Wall. (More than 6,200 kilometers of the Ming-era wall’s 8,851.8 kilometers is artificial, and the rest consist of natural barriers, the article said.)

然而，近日，據(jù)北京時報刊登的一篇文章所示，萬里長城正漸漸從人們眼中消失， 而該文章則參考了數(shù)名當?shù)毓賳T及長城學者，以及調(diào)查數(shù)據(jù)。這篇于周日見報的文章表示，被人們廣為認知的明代長城，有22%的地方早已消磨不見。而這部分已消失了的長城全長為1,961千米，也就是1，219英里，等同于長城人造部分的30%左右。(據(jù)文所言，清代長城全長為8,851.8千米，其中超過6,200千米為人工建造，剩下的則由天然屏障所組成)

Those numbers were released in 2012 by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and no doubt more of the wall has disappeared since then.

2012年，這些數(shù)據(jù)為國家文物局所發(fā)布，但無可否認，自那以來，長城也一直在消失。

The Beijing Times article caused a stir on social media on Monday. People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, wrote in English on Twitter: “Report on vanishing Great Wall shocks the country.” Global Times, a newspaper overseen by People’s Daily, expressed anxiety in a Twitter post: “Nearly 30 percent of Great Wall disappears. Fancy a trip before it’s all gone?” People’s Daily Online and Global Times both ran stories on Monday that repeated the findings of The Beijing Times.

周一，北京時報的這篇文章在社會媒體上引起了一場風波。人民日報，黨內(nèi)最受歡迎的報紙，在推特上用英文寫道;“報道長城消失，沖擊整個國家。” 全球時報，由人民日報報社所監(jiān)督管理的報社，也在其推特上表達其對此的擔憂;“近30%的長城消失了，想在它完全消失之前旅游一番嗎?” 人民日報在線及全球時報在周一雙雙刊登了新聞特寫，兩次描述了北京時報的發(fā)現(xiàn)。