北京罕见暴雨引发各方问责

A freak storm in China’s capital that killed at least 37 people over the weekend has sparked anger and raised questions over poor urban infrastructure in the world’s second-largest -economy.

一场罕见的暴雨上周末侵袭中国首都北京，至少37人因此丧生，这引发了人们的愤怒，也使人们对全球第二大经济体糟糕的城市基础设施提出了质疑。

The violent rainstorm, the worst Beijing has seen in more than six decades, according to city authorities, dumped an average of 17cm of rain on the Chinese capital on Saturday. Flash floods temporarily paralysed the city, shutting down most transport and leaving 80,000 people stranded at the airport on Saturday night.

根据北京市政府部门的信息，上周六的这场暴雨是北京60多年来经历的最强降雨，平均降水量达到170毫米。大雨造成的突发洪水一度使全市陷入瘫痪，多数交通工具被迫暂停使用，上周六晚间，8万人滞留机常

Most of Beijing was dry and functioning normally by Sunday morning, which some residents said was proof that the city handled the floods well. But others saw the floods as evidence of Beijing’s failure to upgrade its drainage systems despite the billions of renminbi spent beautifying and improving the capital in recent years.

到周日上午时，北京大部分地区的水已退去，城市运行也已恢复正常，一些市民据此认为，这表明北京在应对暴雨方面是得力的。但在其他人看来，尽管近些年为美化及改造北京投入了巨额资金，但这场暴雨证明，北京未能对排水系统进行升级换代。

“We are paying for the problems in urban construction and management with human lives, wrote one user on Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent to Twitter. “This price is too high.

新浪微博（相当于中国版Twitter）的一名用户写道：“我们为城市建设和管理中的问题付出了生命的代价。这个代价太高了。

China’s breakneck economic growth has been punctuated by tragic accidents that underscore the poor quality of much of the infrastructure that is being built. Many Chinese internet users drew a parallel between the flooding deaths in Beijing and the high-speed train crash in Wenzhou, in which 40 people died after a collision on the Beijing-Shanghai line.

在中国经济飞速发展的过程中，曾发生过数起不幸的事故，这些事故凸显出目前在建的许多基础设施质量低劣。许多中国网民将北京暴雨致死事件与温州附近的动车追尾碰撞事故相提并论，在那起事故中，两列动车发生追尾，造成40人丧生。

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of that accident, but coverage has been banned in Chinese media, extending earlier bans on articles about the sensitive subject.

昨天是温州动车事故发生一周年的日子，但中国媒体被禁止进行相关报道，延长了针对这一敏感话题的禁令。

The Beijing storm, by contrast, was widely covered and state-run media did not refrain from criticising the way it had been handled. “If so much chaos can be triggered in Beijing, the capital of the nation, problems in urban infrastructure of many other places can only be worse, said an editorial in the English-language Global Times.

与之形成反差的是，媒体对此次北京暴雨进行了广泛报道，官方媒体也站了出来，对政府应对暴雨的方式提出批评。《环球时报》(Global Times)英文版的一篇社评指出：“如果说在首都北京也会引发如此程度的混乱，那么在其他许多地方，城市基础设施存在的问题只会更糟。

The poorer, outlying districts around Beijing were among the most severely affected by flooding. Rescue efforts continued yesterday in the southwestern district of Fangshan, and authorities said the death toll there could rise significantly.

相对较为贫穷的北京市郊是受灾最为严重的地区。在位于北京市区西南方的房山，救援工作昨日仍在继续，当局表示，那里的死亡人数可能会大幅上升。

Yesterday morning the official death toll stood at 37. Of those, 25 drowned, one was struck by lightning, five were electrocuted and six were killed by collapsed buildings, according to city authorities.

昨天上午，官方公布的死亡人数为37人。根据北京市政府部门的统计，其中溺水死亡25人，雷击致死1人，触电死亡5人，房屋倒塌致死6人。