Unfortunately for Hong Kong, May 14 was an utterly1 ordinary day. Tourists milling at one of the territory's most famous lookout2 points - the Victoria Peak viewing terrace near the terminus of the Peak Tram - gazed down on a city bathed in heavy smog.
在香港一个少见的晴天拍摄的实景图，展示了这类游客本来能看到的情景：香港著名的港湾--经过无数次填海后，目前看起来就像一条河；尖沙嘴半岛；与远处的九龙山。
A picture map, snapped on one of Hong Kong's rare clear days, depicted3 what they should have been able to see: the territory's famous harbour, now re百度竞价推广bling a river after numerous land reclamations; the Tsim Sha Tsui peninsula; and the Kowloon hills beyond.
但，当游客们费力地将地图与眼前的景色对比时，他们透过雾霭，只能勉强认出下面的港湾和尖沙嘴的几栋高楼。九龙山已经彻底消失了。
But as tourists struggled to match the map to the view, only the harbour below and a few tall buildings in Tsim Sha Tsui could be made out through the haze4. The Kowloon hills had disappeared completely.
中国游客们转身离开了污染，来到实景图边摆姿势拍照。当他们结束之后，一对法国夫妇将摄像机对准了图片，代替他们看不见的风景。
Turning their backs on the pollution, Chinese tourists posed for photos beside the picture map. And when they were finished, a French couple focused their camcorder on the image, as a proxy5 for the view they could not see.
在香港，看不见的风景愈加多，雾霭出现的次数是10年前的两倍。去年，香港天文台记录下来的能见度降低的时间为1258小时，是1996年581小时的两倍多。
The invisible view has become increasingly commonplace in Hong Kong, which now experiences twice as much haze as it did a decade ago. Last year the city's observatory6 recorded 1,258 hours of reduced visibility, more than double the 581 hours of 1996.
雾霭的紧急程度，在非常大程度上是由这里的气候条件决定的。从历史上看，正是这种气候条件使香港这样合适于航海贸易。每年十月到次年4月，按时刮起的南风，便于来自从西方的船只沿中国海岸北上日本。
The severity of the haze is in large part determined7 by the conditions that historically made Hong Kong so ideal for the sea-faring trade. Reliable southerly winds from October to April provided easy passage for ships coming from the west and heading up the China coast towards Japan.
从11月到次年4月，从北方刮来的冷锋气流又为船只返程提供了便利。这个避风港提供了休息和与中国大陆进行贸易的有利场合。
From November to April a cold front blows in from the north, facilitating the return voyage. The sheltered harbour provided a favourable8 spot for rest and trade with China's interior.
100年前，冬天季风只能将零星的戈壁沙尘带到香港。但目前，它带来了更多来自近处的风沙。
A hundred years ago the winter monsoons9 brought little more than a sprinkling of Gobi desert dust to Hong Kong. But today they bring much more from sources closer to home.
在边境彼岸，中国大陆的珠江三角洲区域将100年的工业化进程浓缩到20年，将沉睡的村庄转变为每天24小时不停工作的制造区。
Across the border, China's Pearl River delta10 region has crammed11 a century's worth of industrialisation into twenty years, transforming sleepy villages into 24-hour manufacturing zones.
香港最紧急的污染可以追溯到佛山--一座距香港西北约150公里、拥有600万人口的城市。佛山被称作中国南部的陶瓷之都，在当地的空风韵量图上，这座城市常常出目前最紧急污染带的中心。在这里，烧煤的窑炉喷出很多的黑色废气及二氧化硫和二氧化氮等化合物。
The worst of Hong Kong's pollution can be traced to Foshan, a city of 6m about 150km northwest of Hong Kong. Known as the ceramics12 capital of south China, Foshan is often featured on regional air quality maps at the centre of the darkest circle of pollution. Its coal-burning kilns13 spew out huge quantities of sooty waste and chemical compounds such as sulfur14 dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
这类污染物被从十月到4月最容易见到的北风带到香港，致使香港冬天的污染紧急加剧。
These pollutants15 are carried to Hong Kong by the northerlies that prevail from October to April, resulting in much worse pollution during the winter months.
在春夏两季气流扭转方向后，可能可以指望反向的风缓解冬天的阴霾。但这已不再是确定无疑的，正如5月14日的大雾所展示的那样。
After the air stream reverses course in the spring and summer, reciprocal winds could be counted on to bring some respite16 from the winter haze. But this is no longer guaranteed, as the smog of May 14 showed.
过去几年发生了根本性的变化，那就是，从东北或东南吹来的风都大概带来雾霭，香港天文台台长林超英表示。大家可以看到来源确定是台湾西部的雾霭。颗粒物可能来自不少方向。
In the past few years there has been a fundamental change- that is the probability of haze in the case of winds coming in from the northeast or southeast, said CY Lam, director of the Hong Kong Observatory. We could see haze coming from clearly identified sources in western Taiwan. The particulate17 matter could come from many directions.
汽车和火力发电厂产生的污染，也在香港的污染中占据了相当比率，而被叫做陆海风循环的当地刮风模式愈加剧了这种污染。在钢筋混凝土塑造的城区温度升高时，污染物上升并飘向海洋，但又会被温度较低的海风带回香港。
Hong Kong's vehicles and coal-burning power plants also generate a fair share of pollution within the city, which is then exacerbated18 by local wind patterns and what is known as land-sea breeze circulation. As concrete-clad urban areas heat up, pollutants rise and disperse19 over the ocean, only to be carried back into the city by cooler sea breezes.
香港科技大学大方科学教授及专家刘启汉表示：当吹向海岸的风到达时，它事实上带来了更多被污染的空气，而非清爽的海风。
When onshore wind comes it actually brings more polluted air instead of a very nice ocean breeze, says Alexis Lau, a professor and expert on atmospheric20 science at Hong Kong'sUniversity of Science and Technology.
为容纳飞速增长的4500万人口，珠江三角洲一带的每个城市迅速扩张，进一步增加了问题的复杂程度。刘启汉表示：城市化致使的气温升高，加剧了陆海风循环，使外部的风更难进入，因此，污染物的消散也变得愈加困难。
The problem is compounded by the rapid spread of cities across the Pearl River delta to accommodate a burgeoning21 population of 45m. Increased heat due to urbanisation strengthens the land-sea breeze circulation and makes it more difficult for outside winds to penetrate22, so it is more difficult for the pollution to dispers, says Mr Lau.
香港政府尚未找到综合策略，解决既影响旅客也影响居民的空风韵量问题。与中国大陆的外贸合作进展缓慢，尽管边境另一侧有5万多个港资工厂。
Hong Kong's government has yet to develop a comprehensive solution to tackle the air quality issues that affect tourists and residents alike. Cross-border collaboration23 with the mainland has proceeded slowly, even though there are more than 50,000 Hong Kong-invested factories across the border.
5年前，两地政府承诺，到2010年，将按中国大陆的空风韵量标准达成减排。中国大陆的规范在方方面面比香港标准更为严格。但，如期达成目的好像不太可能了。
Five years ago, the two governments pledged emissions24 reductions by 2010 according to mainland China's air quality standards, which are in many cases more stringent25 than Hong Kong's. But it appears unlikely that the targets will be met on time.
刘启汉表示：假如减排真的发生了，大家应当能看到天空的情况出现改变。但目前大家还没看到。
If the reduction is actually happening we should be able to see the sky improving, said Mr Lau. This is not the case yet.
