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Pingyao
平遙古城
In banking's shadow
票號的幽靈
A former financial hub now begs for the patronage of tourists
曾經的金融中心，如今向光顧的游客乞食
The town Mao forgot
免遭太祖毒手的小城
ITALIAN cities such as Florence and Venice have long made a mint from the architectural wonders built when they were financial centres. China has been slower to capitalise on the physical remains of past commercial glory in Pingyao, an urban backwater in inland Shanxi province, which was China's banking hub in the 19th century. Today tourists flock to the walled city, with its unusually well-preserved houses built between the 17th and 19th centuries. But restoring its former wealth remains elusive.
像佛羅倫薩、威尼斯這類曾經是金融中心的意大利城市留有大量輝煌的建筑，人們也早就開始利用這些遺跡賺錢。中國的平遙是位于內地省份山西的閉塞小城，19世紀時曾是全國的金融中心，平遙往日商業輝煌的遺跡之前也開發得相對慢。如今這座城墻高聳，擁有大片保存良好的明清建筑的小城迎來了熙熙攘攘的游客。但要重現往日的富裕，仍是不太可能的。
The most-visited attraction in modern Pingyao is the Rishengchang Draft Bank, which in 1823 became the first in China to issue cheques. The city lay on the path of a lucrative trade route. The bank's manager spied a business opportunity when he saw silver shipments passing each other in opposite direction. He replaced pricey security, wagons and pack animals with a clearing house.
日昇昌票號是如今平遙最吸引人的景點，1823年，這家票號開出了中國第一張支票。平遙小城坐落在財源滾滾的貿易路線上。票號經理從來來往往運送白銀的商隊中覺察到了商機。他以這樣一間提供結算服務的鋪子，取代了代價不菲的鏢師，馬車，牲畜。
The bank spawned around 50 competitors across Shanxi (nearly half in Pingyao) with hundreds of branches across the empire. At the time Chinese bankers were held in lower esteem than peasants and tradesmen. They tried to keep staff honest by making them pledge their homes and even to surrender their families as slaves if they committed fraud; investors had no control over the banks' daily operations.
在日昇昌的刺激下，山西省內誕生了約50家類似的票號（半數都在平遙），數以百計的分莊遍布整個帝國。在那時的中國，票號掌柜的地位比農民商人都低。為了確保伙計的誠信，掌柜會讓伙計當掉自己的房子，一旦發現有欺詐行為，會把伙計們的家人賣作傭人；同時票號的出資人無權掌控日常的經營。
But it was not the staff that did for the banks. They collapsed soon after the Qing dynasty's demise in 1911. The government withdrew its remittance business, currency unification removed the need for the silver trade between cities and competition grew from modern banks.
但最終不是伙計們毀了票號。1911年清朝滅亡后，票號很快便都倒閉了。政府取締了票號的匯款業務，白銀流通因統一的紙幣而失去需求，來自現代化銀行的競爭日益激烈。
Pingyao's ensuing poverty proved to be its saviour. Its picturesque grid of traditional imperial houses survived when most elsewhere succumbed to Mao's hatred of the old and his successors' love of the new. Now it has reinvented itself. Around 1.5m people visited Pingyao in 2013, up from around 50,000 in 1997 when UNESCO named it a world heritage site.
而后的窮困反倒拯救了這座小城。當全國上下都屈服于太祖對舊物的憎恨，以及后繼者們對新物的狂熱的之時，平遙安然躲過了這一切，風景如畫，星羅棋盤的舊帝國式建筑群也得以保存。如今平遙又重拾自我。2013年共有約150萬人來到平遙，當1997年聯合國教科文組織認定其為世界文化遺產時，這個數字只有五萬。
Hope that the streets would again be lined with silver are overblown. The benefits of the tourist boom are spread only narrowly. A small, spruced-up central area thrums with visitors enjoying the curved rooftops, traditional fa?ades, red lanterns and, strangely, Mao memorabilia. Beyond the centre, many streets look like slums: roofs slump, walls are crumbling and waste is carried away by a horse rather than sewers. Few can afford to fix up their homes, even with financial support from the government and the California-based Global Heritage Fund, a charity that is helping to preserve some of China's historical sites.
期盼平遙的街巷又一次鑲金帶銀，是過于樂觀了。旅游繁榮只是讓小范圍收益。小小的，打扮整齊的中央區中游客來往，欣賞著建筑的坡頂，古樸的外觀，紅燈籠，以及一些詭異的太祖紀念品。中央區之外，許多街道看著像貧民窟：屋頂塌陷，墻體搖搖欲墜，污穢甚至不是排進下水道，而是由馬匹運出。盡管政府有財政支持，意在保護中國某些歷史遺跡，總部位于加利福尼亞的全球文化遺產基金會也有捐助，但也幾乎沒人有錢來修繕一下自己的家。
To declutter the town, four-fifths of the city's population have been moved outside the city walls since 1997. But the new town's hotels and karaoke halls are often empty. A high-speed rail link that opened in July running from the nearby provincial capital, Taiyuan, to Xi'an (home of the crowd-pulling Terracotta Army) should draw the crowds. But ease of access also means ease of retreat: most sightseers come only for the day. Making money from moving people around China may prove harder than profiting from the movement of silver.
為整理市容，自1997年起，平遙城五分之四的人口已遷出城外。不過在面貌一新的古城，旅館與KTV卻經常空空如也。七月開通了從省會太原到西安（兵馬俑所在地）的高鐵，會為平遙古城帶來游客。但人方便過來，也方便出去：觀光客們一般就在城里逗留一個白天。從人來人往中賺錢，的確比運輸白銀更為艱難啊。譯者：周鼎燁
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