It's been protected from floodwaters that destroy tens of thousands of homes.

洪水摧毀了數以萬計的家園，而這裡卻免受洪水侵襲。

And it costs tens of billions of dollars to build.

它的建造成本高達數百億美元。

Welcome to Xiongan, the mega-project that Chinese leader Xi Jinping has staked his legacy on.

歡迎來到雄安--中國領導人習近平寄予厚望的大型項目。

Located 60 miles outside Beijing, Xiongan is designed to ease pressure on the overcrowded and congested Chinese capital of more than 20 million people.

雄安位於北京城外 60 英里處，旨在緩解這座擁有 2000 多萬人口的中國首都擁擠不堪的壓力。

Seven years ago, all of this was cornfields and swamp.

七年前，這裡還是玉米田和沼澤地。

Today, it is a metropolis being built from scratch.

如今，它是一座從無到有的大都市。

With a whopping price tag of $93 billion, it was built as a showcase for China's technological prowess and as a way to show off its urban progress to the world.

它的造價高達 930 億美元，是中國技術實力的展示，也是向世界展示城市進步的一種方式。

In less than a decade, thousands of buildings have sprung up, including residential compounds, office complexes, luxury hotels, and one of the symbols of the city, Xiongan train station.

在不到十年的時間裡，數以千計的建築如雨後春筍般拔地而起，其中包括住宅小區、辦公樓群、豪華酒店以及城市標誌之一的雄安火車站。

This terminus is one of China's biggest, the size of 88 football fields.

這個總站是中國最大的總站之一，有 88 個足球場那麼大。

It can take more than 100,000 passengers a day.

它每天可以運送 100 000 多名乘客。

But right now, it is just a deathly silence.

但現在，這裡只是一片死一般的寂靜。

You just don't see a lot of people around.

只是周圍人不多。

You can hear a couple of cleaning workers, a couple of people off in the distance, some security guards.

你可以聽到幾個清潔工人的聲音，遠處有幾個人的聲音，還有一些保全的聲音。

But other than that, it is pretty quiet here.

除此之外，這裡還算平靜。

Despite its official completion date of 2035, parts of the city are already finished.

儘管正式竣工日期是 2035 年，但該城的部分區域已經完工。

The scale and the speed of the construction here is really just astonishing.

這裡的建設規模和速度著實令人驚歎。

You can just feel being here that no expense has been spared to build this into what they're hoping is going to be a socialist modern metropolis.

在這裡，你可以感受到他們不惜工本，希望把這裡建設成一個社會主義現代化大都市。

Across the city, signs and billboards promote quotes from China's most powerful leader in decades.

在整個城市，標語牌和廣告牌都在宣傳這位中國幾十年來最有權勢的領導人的名言。

Basically what it says is that everyone should persist without giving up in using Xi Jinping's thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era to unite our hearts and forge our spirits.

它的基本意思是，大家要堅持不懈地用習近平新時代中國特色社會主義思想凝聚人心、鑄就精神。

Something along those lines.

差不多就是這個意思。

And the success of this multi-billion dollar endeavor is directly linked to Xi's personal investment in it.

而這項耗資數十億美元的事業能否取得成功，與習近平的個人投資直接相關。

So much so that when the deadly floods of 2023 swamped nearby areas, officials demanded Xiongan be protected.

以至於當 2023 年致命的洪水淹沒附近地區時，官員們要求保護雄安。

As floodwaters were diverted from sparsely populated Xiongan into what the government called designated flood zones, neighboring cities and villages were submerged.

由於洪水從人口稀少的雄安被引入政府所謂的指定防洪區，周邊的城市和村莊被淹沒。

Videos on social media showed people taking to the streets in a rare show of public anger, claiming the floods in their areas were caused by diverted waters, not by heavy rainfall.

社交媒體上的視頻顯示，人們走上街頭，罕見地表達了公眾的憤怒，聲稱他們所在地區的洪水是由改道的水流造成的，而不是暴雨。

The Communist Party hopes Xiongan will stand alongside successes like the technological hub of Shenzhen, in the south of the country, a city which has come to symbolize China's transformation beginning in the 1980s under former leader Deng Xiaoping.

中國共產黨希望雄安能與位於中國南部的技術中心深圳等成功城市並駕齊驅，深圳自上世紀 80 年代起在前領導人鄧小平的上司下成為中國轉型的象徵。

But unlike Shenzhen's disorderly and sprawling growth, the new city of Xiongan is meticulously planned, with limits on which companies are welcome here, including the tech and space sectors which are actively encouraged to move into Xiongan.

但與深圳的無序擴張不同，雄安新城的規劃十分嚴謹，對企業的入駐也有限制，包括積極鼓勵入駐雄安的科技和航天領域。

The city also has strict controls on home prices in a bid to fend off speculators.

該市還嚴格控制房價，以打擊投機者。

But despite the arrival of state-run companies and institutions, people appear to be less interested in setting up home here.

不過，儘管國營公司和機構紛紛進駐，但人們似乎對在這裡安家的興趣不大。

State media boasts that 1.2 million people live here, a figure boosted by incorporating surrounding counties into the city's domain, according to experts in urban planning.

國家媒體吹噓這裡居住著 120 萬人，而根據城市規劃專家的說法，將周邊縣市納入該市範圍後，這一數字有所提高。

But the newly built areas looked eerily empty when we visited.

但在我們參觀時，新建的區域卻顯得空蕩蕩的。

Now we're in sort of a residential commercial part of Xiongan.

現在我們在雄安的住宅商業區。

This is actually quite a green city.

這其實是一座綠色城市。

Unlike Beijing, it's lower density.

與北京不同，這裡的密度較低。

There's a cap on how tall the buildings can be so there aren't big skyscrapers around.

建築物的高度有上限，所以周圍沒有大的摩天大樓。

But there's also not a lot of people around.

但周圍也沒什麼人。

It's very quiet here.

這裡非常安靜。

In fact, while local authorities say 120,000 people have moved into these new homes over the past seven years, many of them aren't newcomers, but locals from the villages flattened to make way for the city.

事實上，雖然當地政府稱在過去的七年裡已有 12 萬人搬進了這些新家，但其中很多人並不是新來者，而是為了給城市讓路而被夷為平地的村莊裡的當地人。

At least two of the people we spoke to were quite forthright about some of the inequalities and some of the anger that some of the local residents had here.

與我們交談過的人中，至少有兩人直言不諱地指出了這裡的一些不平等現象，以及當地居民的一些憤怒情緒。

You had a lot of local villagers who basically had their villages torn down and were given compensation, a compensation that I think in a lot of cases didn't quite meet expectations.

很多當地村民的村莊基本上都被拆毀了，他們得到了補償，但我認為在很多情況下，這種補償並沒有達到預期。

There are some newcomers, but many of them appear to work for the companies actually building the city, with construction remaining the main source of employment in the area.

這裡有一些新移民，但他們中的許多人似乎都在為實際建設城市的公司工作，建築業仍然是該地區的主要就業來源。

Experts point out that it took over a decade for the city of Shenzhen to be considered a successful venture.

專家指出，深圳花了十多年時間才被認為是一次成功的創業。

But while Shenzhen grew as China opened to a deluge of Western investment, Xiongan is being built as China faces the headwinds of decoupling from the West, an economic slowdown, and declining population growth.

然而，深圳的發展源於中國對大量西方投資的開放，而雄安的建設則源於中國面臨著與西方脫鉤、經濟放緩和人口增長下降等不利因素。

Despite these concerns, authorities project that Xiongan's population will reach 5 million people in the coming decades.

儘管存在這些擔憂，但有關部門預計，未來幾十年雄安的人口將達到 500 萬。

China experts say that Xi has invested so much of his reputation into Xiongan, he has little choice but to push on with the megaproject.

中國專家說，習近平在雄安投入瞭如此多的聲譽，他別無選擇，只能繼續推進這個大型項目。

But whether this still largely empty construction site evolves into a shining metropolis of the socialist future, or a failed vanity project, remains to be seen.

但是，這個仍然空空如也的建築工地究竟會發展成為一個閃亮的社會主義未來大都市，還是一個失敗的虛榮項目，還有待觀察。