首尔藏了半个世纪的河

首尔市中心有一条河,曾被封闭埋藏了半个世纪。清溪川曾经公开流淌在城市的核心地带,但在战后的岁月里,它逐渐被污染,又被棚户区团团围住,于是当局把它铺上了水泥。混凝土把河水彻底封存起来,到二十世纪七十年代,一条高架公路又在这层混凝土之上隆隆驶过。这条河只作为车流之下的传闻而存在。

At the heart of Seoul lies a river that spent half a century entombed. The Cheonggyecheon once ran openly through the city's core, but in the years following the war it grew polluted and hemmed in by shanties, so the authorities paved over it. Concrete sealed the water away, and by the nineteen seventies an elevated highway thundered above that concrete. The river persisted only as a rumour beneath the traffic.

后来,在二零零三年,首尔尝试了一件看起来近乎荒谬的事:开始拆除这条高架公路,把河流重新挖掘出来。工程师们拆掉了路面,恢复了将近六公里的河道,并沿着河岸修建了步道、汀步和桥梁。怀疑者指责这座城市为了装饰而牺牲了有用的基础设施。项目还是照常推进,二零零五年,这条河再次揭开面纱,重见天日。

Then, in two thousand and three, Seoul attempted something that looked almost perverse: it began dismantling the highway to dig the river back out. Engineers tore up the roadway, restored nearly six kilometres of the stream, and lined its banks with walkways, stepping stones and bridges. Sceptics accused the city of sacrificing useful infrastructure for decoration. The project proceeded regardless, and the stream was unveiled again in two thousand and five.

就连最乐观的人也没有料到后来发生的事。鱼类、鸟类和昆虫回到了这片五十年未见天日的水域。夏天,河边的气温比与之平行的道路低了好几度,仿佛一台天然空调,穿插在这座城市最密集的地段中间。如今每年有数百万人走在它的河岸上,其中许多人年纪太轻,根本不知道自己最喜欢的首尔一角,曾经是一条高速公路的底下。

Even the optimists were unprepared for what followed. Fish, birds and insects returned to water that had not glimpsed daylight in fifty years. Summer temperatures along the stream registered several degrees cooler than on the roads running parallel to it, a natural air conditioner threaded through the densest part of the city. Millions now walk its banks each year, many of them too young to grasp that their favourite corner of Seoul was once the underside of a motorway.