Great Places Aren’t Always Great to Look At: A Banqiao Photo Essay 好地方不見得都好看：板橋照片集

Taiwan is one of the original Asian tiger economies. Having suffered in the Second World War, manufacturing prospered in the 1960s and 1970s, and Taiwan is now successfully transitioning into a modern high tech- and finance-based economy. New Taipei City is an exemplar of its success: prosperous, entrepreneurial, densely populated, safe and well provided for in terms of public facilities, including shops and parks. 

台灣是亞洲經濟四小龍之一，在二次世界大戰中飽受折磨，製造業在60、70年代歷經繁榮，而台灣現在成功的改革，成為現代高科技並以金融為基礎的經濟體，新北市即為成功改革下的範例：繁榮的企業、密集的人口、公共建設來說，安全且友善，包括商店及公園。

Although New Taipei City has some characteristics of a suburb – it consists of the 30 municipalities around Taipei city – it has grown and prospered into an ‘edge city’ of 3.6 million people. The most densely populated area of New Taipei City and the centre of its administration is Banqiao (pronounced Banchow). With more than 40,000 people per square kilometer, it is one of the 25 most densely populated places on earth.

雖然新北市有一些郊區的特質－它包含30個自治區，位於在台北市外圍－它不斷成長、繁榮，成為擁有360萬人口的「邊緣城市」；新北市人口最密集的地方，同時也是該市的中央行政區，這就是板橋，每一平方公里就有超過四萬人居住，是地球上人口最密集前25名的地方之一。

For all its easy-going modernity, as you move around Banqiao, past the modern high-rise developments and into the older suburbs, you’ll come to shabbier areas, with older, medium-density residential buildings covered in faded or grubby render, neon signs, balconies enclosed by metal grills and electrical wires.

它有著隨和的現代風格，如果你搬到板橋附近，走過現代高度發展的建築，來到老舊郊區，你會來到一個破舊邋遢的區域，並可看到被褪色、骯髒的灰泥、霓虹號誌、附有鐵條及電線的陽台所覆蓋、中度密集的老民宅。

At street level, shops of every conceivable type sprawl on to the ‘sidewalk’. The air is occasionally pungent, and one has to be careful not to trip over the crazily pot-holed paving and low concrete obstacles that have resulted from decades of jerry-building. 

在每條街上，各式各樣的商店蔓延在「人行道」上，空氣中傳來陣陣強烈的氣味，而且人們要小心不要被地上的坑坑洞洞及因幾十年來偷工減料的建築所造成的低矮水泥路障給絆倒。

The neighborhood is not very pretty by the gleaming glass and steel standards of modern Asia. In fact, at first sight, it is not what you would typically consider a great place. You could be forgiven for thinking it is a marginal area dangerously close to full-scale decline.

以充滿閃閃發亮玻璃及鋼筋的現代亞洲來說，這裏的社區並不漂亮，事實上，第一眼，一般來說，這裏並不會讓你覺得是一個好地方，如果你覺得這裡是一個看起來已經近乎沒落的邊緣地區，這樣的想法是可以被原諒的。

But if you spend a little time there, you’ll discover how wrong you are. It’s a place of vibrancy: a self-policing area of safe and secure urban living that seems to contain something from an “older Asia” with its roots in the countryside and mid-rise urban living (at six or seven storeys, max). Scruffy for sure, it is as far as is possible from being a marginal area. Banqiao is a compact, efficient engine for meeting human need. 

但如果你花一些時間在那裡，你會發現你錯得有多離譜，這是一個充滿生機的地方：一個安全自律的地方，且安全的城市生活像是包含了些「舊亞洲」以鄉村及中度發展的城市生活為發源的特質（最高有六或七樓），當然一定是破舊的，但說板橋又遠遠超過邊緣地區，板橋是一個可以滿足人類需求的緊密壓縮高效引擎。

For a start, there is an abundance of street food, inexpensive and delicious, that the locals eat regularly for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The apartments are tiny and often occupied by families of four or five, so cooking and laundry are difficult.

首先看看，這裡有滿街的食物，當地人照三餐享用，便宜且美味；公寓都很小，且大多住著一家四口或五口，所以煮飯、洗衣服會很困難。

Residents externalize their needs, and a huge family market supports the neighborhood’s small shops, eating places, market stalls and convenience stores, which are crammed into nearly every available street-level nook and cranny.

居民們將他們的需求外部化，一個大型家庭市場提供社區小店、小吃攤、市集攤販和便利商店，這些全都擠在幾乎每個能塞得下的街角縫隙中。

Fruit and freshly slaughtered meat is available from open-air stalls, and you can purchase living fish from rows of tanks. After sundown, the night markets open up, offering an entirely different variety of food and other essentials like clothes. 

水果和新鮮屠宰肉品在開放式的攤販都可以買到，而你也可以在數排的魚缸裡，買到活蹦亂跳的魚；日落之後，夜市開始營業，提供完全不同種類的食物和其他必需品，像是服飾。

The green leaves that project from almost every balcony provide unexpected rest for the eye, and speak of the care people have for their properties despite their age and battered appearance. The endless washing hung from the balcony also signifies pride and inherent self-respect, as do the ever-fashionable inhabitants.

從幾乎每間陽台投射出來的綠葉提供眼睛一些意想不到的休息空間，另外談到對自己資產的重視，不論幾歲或是長相如何都是一樣的，在陽台上永遠洗不完的吊掛物，也象徵著驕傲與固有的自尊，就像居民們曾經流行這麼做。

People think cities are based on the cost advantages that businesses gain from clustering together. But there are also social agglomeration economies as well – the cost and convenience benefits people and families get from living in close proximity. By living together, at relatively high densities, the market is able to provide a broad range of essential goods and services at affordable prices.

人們認為城市的基礎是生意因群聚在一起活動所獲得的成本優勢，但也有社會凝聚的經濟，低花費和便利造福了居住在鄰近的地區的人們和家庭，藉由住在一起，在相對人口高密度的地方，市場可以以適當的價格提供很多種類的必需物品及服務。

Banqiao has the kind of dynamic and informal economy one might have observed walking through Victorian London: outdoor markets, single-proprietor shops operating from adapted front rooms, workshops, repair yards, builders merchants, coal yards and the general clutter and clatter of high density living.

板橋擁有一種你走在維多利亞時代的倫敦可以觀察到的動態、隨性的經濟：露天市場、由住家改建的獨資商店、工作坊、修理廠、房屋仲介、堆煤場和高密度人口居住的吵雜聲。

Dickens, perhaps the most famous observer 19th century urban life, was famous for his love of London because it offered everything a sensible middle- or lower-class person in England could ever want or imagine wanting. And, as Dickens’s novels show, it also facilitated a close-knit, diverse and supportive human community.

狄更斯（Dickens），或許是19世紀都會生活最有名的觀察家，以他對倫敦的愛聞名，因為它提供了在英國敏感的中、低階級人士想要、幻想的一切；而Dickens的小說上市以後，它也促成了緊密、多種、牢靠的人類社會。

One of my Taiwanese friends regularly blogs about “lively alleys”, and Banqiao has these in abundance. In Banqiao, all the older buildings have shops, workshops and temples and other religious outlets at street level.

我一個台灣朋友的部落格主題是「活潑的巷弄」，而板橋就非常符合，在板橋，每條街上的所有老舊建築都有商店、工作坊和寺廟及其他宗教的出口。

These range from rickety to sturdy, but the net effect is a pervasive sense that friendly, albeit commercial, human interaction is never far away. Even the lone female feels safe in Banqiao at almost any hour of the day or night, because something is always open.

這些從搖搖晃晃到紮實，但實際的效應就是無所不在的親切感，儘管有商業性質，人與人的互動仍然不遙遠；即使是單獨的女性，在板橋不論何時、不論日夜，都是安全的，因為總會有商店是開著的。

The streets are lively and inclusive. Moreover, you can always get what you need – laundry, bespoke clothing repair, food – quickly, cheaply and in a small enough quantity for those who don’t have too much money.

這些街道都很活潑、什麼都有；此外，你的需求永遠可以被滿足——像是洗衣服、訂製服的修補、食物——快速、便宜，而且都是小量單位，窮人也可以負擔。

I suspect that the tightly woven social and economic life of Banqiao and places like it are like natural ecosystems. They can be designed, but they also have to have a life of their own which evolves over decades. They also exert a humanizing effect on the sterile modern developments.

我想板橋這個緊密編織的社群與經濟生活以及跟這裡一樣的地方，就像自然生態系統一樣，他們可以被設計，但他們也必須要擁有自己發展幾十年的生命，他們也在枯燥的現代社會發展中，充分施展了人性化的效果。

Like natural ecosystems, however, I suspect they are quite susceptible to disruption. In Asia especially, the challenge is to manage explosive economic growth with all of its development pressures without sacrificing the efficiency and vibrancy of street-level communities and economies.

像是自然生態系統，然而，我想他們很容易受影響而瓦解，尤其是在亞洲，要管理這樣有著發展壓力的爆炸經濟成長，而不犧牲這樣街道社會與經濟的效率與活力，是非常有挑戰性的。

The big, gleaming residential towers going up at the borders of Banqiao threaten to bring with them an occlusion of communal activity as the price for providing upgraded building stock.

在板橋邊緣，巨大閃亮的民宅大樓持續蓋起，作為提供建築更新的代價，社區活動的停止威脅隨之而來。

The challenge for planners and developers is to keep visible and preserve the human networks of neighborhoods like Banqiao while building their residents sturdier, more spacious and more attractive places to live and work. This is not easy to do. Many Western cities were blighted for 50 years or more by ill-conceived “modernist” high-rise development.

計畫者和發展者的挑戰是要保持透明化，並保存人們的社區網絡，像是板橋，同時又得讓他們的居民們更加強健、有更多空間，和變成一個更適合生活與工作、更吸引人的地方，這做起來並不容易，許多西方的城市，在這50年或更久的歲月中，都被構想拙劣「現代主義者」的高度發展所毀滅。

The architect Jan Gehl, a world authority on placemaking says: “Cities must urge urban planners and architects to reinforce pedestrianism as an integrated city policy to develop lively, safe, sustainable and healthy cities. It is equally urgent to strengthen the social function of city space as a meeting place that contributes toward the aims of social sustainability.” All the better if existing communities based around street life are preserved.

建築師Jan Gehl，是一個地方營造的世界權威，表示：「城市一定要督促都市規劃者和建築師們，補強在擬定整合城市方針時的缺乏新意，讓城市發展的更活潑、安全、永續及健康；同樣要緊的是加強城市空間的社交功能，變成一個有以社會永續發展為目標的集會地點 」最好的是，如果現存以街道生活為基礎的社會能被保留下來。

In any case, Banqiao does not always look great, but it is a great place to be and an easy and supportive place to live, particularly if you have a modest income. I hope the new high-rise developments are not about to destroy this vital urban ecosystem, but I fear that they are.

不論如何，板橋並不是每個角度看起來都美，但這的確是一個很棒的地方，也是一個簡單、牢靠的生活地點，尤其如果你薪水較卑微。我希望這些新興的發展不會摧毀這個重要的都會生態區，但我很怕這是事實。