城市，是一個國家發展的基石，大城市，則是國家繁榮的標誌。看一個國家的發達程度，大城市的水平，是一項重要的指標。
最近，在某論壇有外國網友評價全球各國大城市中，中國的深圳、上海、北京、廣州、成都等都獲得比較好的評價，有些外國網友甚至認為中國的大城市已經超過美國或者即將超過美國。
1、Jonathan Buttall
I have been to Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai. I grew up in the greater New York area.
我去過北京、西安和上海，我在大紐約區長大。
I used to think NYC was the human center of the world and the ultimate city. When I went to Shanghai and Beijing, I realized that the Chinese cities look like they’re a century in the future, and dwarf those in the US.
我曾經認為，紐約是人類世界的中心和終極城市。但是，當我去了上海和北京的時候，我才意識到，中國城市看起來像是未來世紀，讓美國城市相形見絀。
The Freedom Tower in New York City (I will not call it the World Trade Center because I respect those who died on 9/11/01) would be nothing if put in the Shanghai skyline.
紐約市的自由塔（我不將其稱之為世貿中心，因為我尊重那些在2001年9月11日去世的人）如果和上海的天際線放在一起，它啥也不是。
Have any of you noticed that most of the buildings in US Cities all look alike?
你們有沒有注意到美國城市的大部分建築都很相似？
As for the exaggeration of so called “ghost cities”, those are simply large empty developments at the edge of hugely populated cities in China. You can see ghost neighborhoods in Newark and Detroit where the race riots of the 60s took place.
至於所謂“鬼城”的誇張說法，這些只是中國人口眾多的城市往周邊空曠地域的延伸而已，你也可以在美國的紐瓦克和底特律看到幽靈社區，那裡60年代發生過種族騷亂。
2、John Garrison
Yes in the sense that all of the infrastructure is pretty new(built in the last 30 years), and most of the public transportation and buildings are super modern. By comparison most American cities have many 50+ year old buildings, and public transportation isn’t that great. If you look at the pictures it appears that China is much more modern with it’s cities, and in some cases it is.
是的，從某種意義上來說，所有的基礎設施都是相當新的(在過去的30年裡建成的)，而且大多數公共交通和建築都非常現代化。相比之下，大多數美國城市還有許多50多年曆史的建築，公共交通也不是很好。如果你看這些照片，你會發現中國的城市更加現代化，在某些情況下確實如此。
▲ 天津
▲ 芝加哥
On the outside both cities look pretty nice, but the Chinese skyscrapers are clearly newer and more modern.
從外觀上看，兩座城市都很漂亮，但中國的摩天大樓顯然更新、更現代。
Chinese cities look very modern on the outside, but if you look at what’s keeping them going they aren’t nearly as developed.
中國的城市在外表上看起來非常現代化，但如果你看看是什麼讓它們發展起來的，就會發現它們遠沒有那麼發達。
I traveled to Beijing in 2014 and was staying on the outskirts of the city. At the apartment block I was in power surges occurred regularly and it wasn’t uncommon for the lights to go out every day for a few minutes without reason….this was 2014 and we were in one of the largest cities in the world, and they were still having continuous power problems. Now I’ve heard they’ve since fixed this issue in that area but that usually doesn’t happen in US cities. In many smaller Chinese cities this can still be a problem, but they are slowly working on fixing it.
2014年我去了北京，當時我住在郊區。在我住的公寓樓裡，經常會有電壓故障，每天停電幾分鐘是很正常的……那是2014年，我們在世界上最大的城市之一，他們仍然有持續的供電問題。現在我聽說他們已經解決了這個問題，但這通常不會發生在美國的城市。在中國的許多小城市，這仍然是個問題，但他們正在慢慢地解決這個問題。
Of course there are more things that American cities do better, and there are more things that Chinese cities do better. Both countries have great cities, and both have their strengths and weaknesses, these are a few of them.
當然了，美國城市做得好的方面很多，中國城市做得好的方面也很多。兩國都有大城市，都有優缺點，這只是其中的一些而已。
3.Quang Nguyen
I have been in Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Dallas. Dallas is one of the top 10 biggest city of US but it is merely passed the population of Hangzhou which is tier 2 city of China. Guangzhou is the tier 1 city but it is getting behind other tier 1 cities of China which means you would see Shanghai or Peiking much more advanced than Guangzhou.
我去過杭州、廣州和達拉斯，達拉斯是美國十大城市之一，但它可能僅僅只有人口超過了杭州這個中國二線城市。廣州是中國的一線城市，但它比中國其他的一線城市要差一些，這意味著，你會看到上海或北京比廣州先進得多。
Comparing to Dallas, Hangzhou is very clean and neat. It is not simple clean. It is mind blowing clean. And for the population of 9 million people, you see much less car on the street than Dallas. The air is the same, but Hangzhou has many more trees than Dallas.
與達拉斯相比，杭州非常地乾淨和整潔，這不是簡單的乾淨，而是真的太乾淨了。相對於杭州的900萬人口來說，你在街上看到的汽車要比達拉斯少得多，空氣差不多，但是杭州的樹比達拉斯的多。
The point is the sheer different between a tier 2 city of China and top 10 biggest cities of US, you will not able to comprehend the difference between the top cities of China with US.
關鍵是，中國的二級城市和美國的十大城市都有著天壤之別，你將無法理解中國頂尖城市與美國城市之間的差別。
urban planning of China has already surpassed US a decade….
中國的城市規劃已經超過美國十年了…
4.Davide Mirabella
The heyday of American cities has been about one hundred years ago, due to high population growth and influx of immigrations.It was also the time when the first skyscrapers started to appear in cities in the Eastern U.S.
美國城市的全盛時期大約是在100年前，因為人口的高速增長和移民的湧入，這也是第一批摩天大樓開始出現在美國東部城市的時間。
A second blooming was after World War 2, when large infrastructure projects were built in the US, in particular highways and airports. Also, many skyscrapers in the so-called Internationalist style started to appear in skylines of US cities.
第二次繁榮發生在第二次世界大戰之後，當時美國修建了很多大型基礎設施項目，特別是很多的高速公路和機場，此外，很多摩天大樓開始出現在美國城市的天際線上。
The development of Chinese cities such as Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai, however, is much more recent. Far-reaching urban renewals were tackled in the early 2000s, so it is only natural that stuff looks cleaner, more organized and more modern. The architecture alone is contemporary, while lots of skyscrapers in US cities look a bit dated because many of them were build 40 to 50 years ago.
但是，深圳、北京和上海等中國城市的發展則是最近才開始的，在21世紀初，長期的城市規劃完成，所以中國的城市看起來更乾淨、更有規劃、更加現代化，這是很正常的，單就建築本身而言，中國是現代化的，而美國城市中的許多摩天大樓看起來有點過時，因為其中許多都是40到50年前建造的。
You could argue that American cities have been collecting a bit of dust, or patina for that matter. Stuff has aged, so you sometimes see and feel it. That is not an inherently bad thing, cities always go through this process - infrastrucutre ages and stops meeting demand and particularly in relation to aesthetics cities can start to look a bit frumpy because contemporary architecture looks much flashier.
你可能會說，美國的城市已經有點髒了，或者說生鏽了，有些東西已經很老舊了，這是你能感覺到的事情，但這並不一定是一件壞事，城市總會經歷這個過程——基礎設施老化，無法滿足需求，尤其是在外觀方面，城市可能會開始看起來有點過時，因為當代建築看起來更加潮流。
Personally, I like some of the gritty areas of US cities. I don’t want everything in a city to be spick and span. Cities are places where people live, lots of them. It is only natural for cities to start to look a bit worn down. It’s what life does to things. There is a certain beauty in decay.
就我個人而言，我挺喜歡美國城市的一些落後地區。我不希望城市裡的一切都是乾淨整潔的。城市是很多人居住的地方，城市開始顯得有些破舊是很自然的。這就是生活的意義。腐朽中也有某種美。
I am not very well informed when it comes to municipal politics in the US - but I am sure some of the lack of infrastrucutre is due to tax cuts and lack of infrastructure spending, too. Also, let’s not glorify Chinese cities too much. The cities you’ve mentioned in your question’s details are the showcase cities of China. I’ve travelled to dozens of cities in China and there’s plenty of places out there that are far from looking as flashy as Shenzhen, Shanghai or Beijing.
談到美國的市鎮建設，我不是很瞭解——但我確信，基礎設施匱乏的部分原因是減稅和基礎設施支出不足。同樣，我們也不要過分美化中國城市。你在問題的中提到的城市是中國的樣板城市。我去過中國幾十個城市，還有很多地方遠不如深圳、上海或北京那麼光鮮。
5.Károly Molnár
I've also been in both American and Chinese big cities and I agree with you, Chinese cities look more modern, cleaner and better organized.
我也去過美國和中國的大城市，我同意你的看法，中國的城市看起來更現代、更乾淨、更有條理。
America as we see today is an old country. New York still has the oldest and shittiest subway system ever! Changes take time and most citizens don't see them as problems because they've grew up in that.
我們今天看到的美國是一個古老的國家。紐約的地鐵系統仍然是最古老和最爛的！當然，我也知道改變需要時間，大多數公民並不認為這是問題，因為他們就是在這樣的環境中長大的。
Modern China however is only 30–40 years old, its development is amazing in such a short time! China wanted to develop so they did everything according to their need of improving their life. Every system is new, maybe even the first in the world because they still focus on development. China can build a whole new city faster than we can construct a new subway station in Hungary…
然而，現代中國只有30-40歲，它能在如此短的時間取得這樣的發展是驚人的！中國想要發展，所以他們按照自己的需要來改善生活。每一個系統都是新的，甚至可能是世界上第一個，因為他們仍然關注發展。中國建設一個新城市的速度比我們在匈牙利建一個新地鐵站的速度還快。
The other reason is that Chinese people have similar values in life, they value hard work, peace and they don't care what the others believe in. They don't have such religious, social and criminal issues like American cities have. Man, you can't pay me enough to enter Detroit while I can walk midnight in any Chinese park alone without thinking of any danger.
另一個原因是中國人在生活中有相似的價值觀，他們重視努力工作，和平，他們不關心別人相信什麼。他們不像美國城市那樣存在宗教、社會和犯罪問題。夥計們，我不能獨自一個人去底特律，而我卻可以在午夜獨自在中國任何一個公園散步而不考慮任何危險。
Since Chinese cities don't have these issues, their local governments can focus on other things that are important for people like cleanness, modern subways or high speed trains which have better services than most world-class airline companies.
因為中國的城市沒有這些問題，他們的地方政府可以專注於其他對人們來說更重要的事情，比如清潔、現代地鐵或比大多數世界級的航空公司服務更好的高速列車上。
6.Joe Martins
Not only more developed, but these days more quickly developed.
不僅更發達，而且發展得更快。
Even in “smaller” cities like Tai Cang City (pop ~1M), Suzhou, Jiangsu an hour Northwest of Shanghai (pop 24+M, 3 times that of NYC) visitors will find entire neighborhoods of 20+ story condo complexes going up in parallel. That is to say, they’ll see 8, 10, 12+ adjacent skyscrapers being built at the same time. No doubt you’ve seen this in your travels.
即使是在“小”城市，如太倉(人口100萬)、江蘇蘇州(人口1072萬，比紐約還多200多萬)，遊客會發現整個街區到處都是20多層的公寓大樓。也就是說，他們將看到8、10、12座相鄰的摩天大樓同時建成。毫無疑問，你在旅行中看到了這一點。
And the Shanghai Metro is so well designed and organized it blows away anything in the U.S. by a light year. Cost-wise it’s ridiculously cheap to get around…many trips across a city 9 times larger by area than NYC cost ~$0.50 USD. [For comparison, it costs $2 per slow-ass bus ride in Newport, RI to take a bus 1/2 mile into town…a town of 24k.]
上海地鐵的設計和組織是如此之好，它比美國的任何東西都要快“一光年”。從成本上來說，這裡的交通成本簡直低得離譜……在一個面積比紐約大9倍的城市裡旅行，很多次的成本都在0.5美元左右。（相比之下，在羅德島新港坐1/2英里的公交車到一個只有24k人口的小鎮要花2美元）
Rental bicycles from at least 4 major companies available on virtually every street corner, and easily rented and unlocked through phone apps. Chain them up outside everywhere you go? Nah! Unlike in NYC nobody is going to steal them.
在中國，至少有4家大公司租賃自行車，幾乎在每個街角都可以使用，而且很容易通過手機應用租用和解鎖。無論你走到哪裡都能把他們鎖在外面?不!不像在紐約，沒有人會去偷它們。
I could go on and on and on.
我可以一直講下去。
It’s on a scale and at a depth my fellow Americans are not likely to see in the U.S. any time soon. I like to say development speed in China today is like the U.S. 60–70 years ago. Vast urban areas seemingly pop up out of farmland in under a decade.
它的規模和深度是我的美國同胞們短期內不太可能在美國看到的。我想說，中國今天的發展速度就像60-70年前的美國。在不到十年的時間裡，大片的城區似乎從農田裡冒了出來。
[EDIT: I should add that if China isn’t careful, it’ll follow the same arc as the U.S. Vast unsustainable development with ongoing maintenance costs that are many multiples the original development cost. Which is why the infrastructure in the U.S. is in such disrepair. We built far more than we could affordably sustain/maintain over the long term. 60–70+ years ago nobody considered the long-term financial impact of large scale development and sprawl. One can already see early signs of decay in relatively new developments (5–20 yo) in China.]
編輯:我應該補充一點，如果中國不小心的話，它將步美國的後塵。巨大的不可持續的發展，持續的維護成本是原始開發成本的許多倍。]這就是為什麼美國的基礎設施年久失修的原因。我們建造的東西遠遠超出了我們長期維持/維護的能力。60-70多年前，沒有人考慮過大規模開發和擴張的長期財務影響。在中國相對較新的發展(5-20歲)中，人們已經可以看到衰退的早期跡象。
結語：
不得不說，對於中國當下的發展，不少外國網友已經感受到了。隨著中國一二線城市的迅速發展，未來的中國尤其是沿海地區一定會出現一個又一個大型發達城市，甚至還會出現堪比紐約、東京的超大型城市群。
但是，在這些繁華背後，我們應該注意發展的平衡性和可持續性，就像“Mulin Chang”網友所說：
“中國的大型城市的確很發達，很先進，給外來者留下了深刻的印象，但它們缺少了美國某些一線城市具備的功能性，特別是對特殊群體的關懷，城市應該是為所有人服務的，而不是為某些群體服務。”
總的來說，我們目前的確取得了不小的成就，但正如那句詩寫的：“路漫漫其修遠兮，吾將上下而求索”，未來的路還長著呢，加油幹吧！
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