With both hands gripping a pole, Deng Hongyou rowed a bamboo raft carrying a couple and their 2-year-old daughter down the quiet Yulong River one morning. Hills of karst rock shaped like camel humps and blanketed with plants rose from the banks.
一天上午，邓宏友（音）双手紧握着船篙，划着竹筏，载着一对夫妇和他们两岁的女儿沿平静的遇龙河而下。河两岸，喀斯特地貌峰林状如驼峰，植被繁茂。
“The Yulong River is just as beautiful as the Li River,” said the wiry Mr. Deng, 53, comparing this waterway in southern China with the larger and more famous river nearby. “Here the water is much calmer. If a child falls in, I can jump in and save her. In the Li River, there are too many big boats that create waves.”
“遇龙河和漓江一样美，”精瘦的邓宏友说。53岁的他是在比较这条河与附近另一条更大、更有名的江。“这里的水流要平缓多了。如果小孩落水，我能跳下去救她。但是漓江呢，大船太多，有浪。”
Most Chinese have heard of the Li River, one of the top tourist sites in the country. A row of karst hills along its banks has been immortalized on one side of the 20 renminbi note. Lesser known is the Yulong, which runs to the west and south of the town of Yangshuo. It is a narrower, more bucolic waterway flanked by the same kinds of mountains.
漓江是中国最热门的旅游景点之一，大部分中国人都听说过。20元面值的人民币的背面，印的就是漓江两岸的一排喀斯特山峰。流向阳朔镇西南部的遇龙河则没那么有名。这条河更窄、更具田园气息，不过两岸的山峰和漓江的同属一类。
As Mr. Deng put it, each river has its character, which is reflected in the towns associated with them. Like the Yulong River, Yangshuo has a reputation as a laid-back rural haven. For years, it catered to backpackers with its hostels and banana pancake cafes.
正如邓宏友说的那样，两条江河各具特色，而这些特色也反映在它们流经的城镇上。和遇龙河一样，阳朔享有乡间的悠闲胜地的声誉。多年来，这里的旅馆和供应香蕉薄饼的餐吧迎来了无数背包客。
The Li is more closely tied to the bustling city of Guilin, a magnet for package tourists and the place that the Chinese government has long promoted to the world as one of the most beautiful places in the country. From Guilin, large and loud motorized tour boats ply the Li.
漓江更多地让人想到熙熙攘攘的桂林。那里对跟团的游客颇具吸引力。长期以来，中国政府一直向全世界宣传桂林，称其是中国最美的地方之一。在桂林，不断有喧闹的大型机动游船在漓江上行驶。
Now, the government of Yangshuo County is looking to push the Yulong River and Yangshuo, the county seat, into the spotlight. Officials here crave the prominence that Guilin and the Li River have had for decades.
如今，阳朔县政府正打算推动遇龙河及县政府所在地阳朔镇成为焦点。这里的官员渴望获得桂林市区和漓江几十年来享有的声望。
They have asked the central government to designate the area around the Yulong River as the Yulong National Geological Park in order, the proposal says, “to better protect these geological relics gifted by nature.”
他们请求中央政府把遇龙河周边地区定为遇龙国家地质公园。申报材料称，这么做是为了“更好地对这些大自然馈赠的地质遗迹进行保护”。
No corner of China outside of the Yangshuo area better embodies the imagined landscape of the country — karst hills, bamboo groves, rice paddies and villages, all occasionally wreathed in mist. Children bike to school along narrow dirt lanes. Farmers lead water buffalo through the wet fields. It is a traditional Chinese painting come to life.
在中国，没有哪个地方比阳朔更适合当作中国美景的象征——喀斯特峰林、竹林、稻田和村庄，偶尔还会笼罩着一层薄雾。孩童沿着窄窄的土路骑车上学。农民牵着水牛在水田里劳作。这是一幅活的传统国画。
County officials unveiled their plan in May and have not released details, so local residents and workers are unsure what changes would take place should the national-park designation be approved by Beijing. But some speak of the proposal with pride.
阳朔县的官员在今年5月公布了他们的计划，但尚未透露细节。因此，当地的居民和工作人员不确定，如果国家公园的申报获批，会发生什么变化。但一些人在说到这次申报时颇为骄傲。
“Most people who visit Guilin come to Yangshuo only if they have time,” said Li Zilong, general manager of Yangshuo Resort, on a bank of the Yulong. “If Yangshuo has a national park, maybe people will recognize that Yangshuo is as beautiful as Guilin and will know that people should spend more time here. A national park shows that experts recognize the value of Yangshuo.”
“去桂林旅游的大部分人，有时间才会来阳朔，”建在遇龙河岸边的阳朔河畔度假酒店总经理李自龙（音）说。“如果阳朔有了国家公园，可能人们就会认识到阳朔和桂林一样美，知道应该在这里多待一段时间。国家公园表明专家认可阳朔的价值。”
County officials “want to build better roads so that more visitors will come,” he said. “We are all for that because once a tourism zone is built up, more visitors will come, and those visitors will attract more visitors. The government will also do some marketing.”
县里的官员“想把路修得更好，这样就会有更多游客来，”他说。“我们都很支持，因为一旦建起旅游区，就会有更多游客来。政府也会做一些营销。”
The profiles of Yangshuo and the Yulong River have been on the rise in recent years. In the 1990s, Yangshuo became a major hangout spot on the backpacker trail through China. Those travelers, most of them foreigners, lingered at restaurants and teahouses on a quiet street in the middle of town, while Chinese and outsiders on package tours preferred to stay in plush hotels in Guilin.
近年来，阳朔和遇龙河的影响一直在提升。90年代，阳朔成为背包客的中国旅行路线上的重要一站，而那些旅行者大多是外国人。当时，小镇中心有一条安静的街道，他们在那里的餐馆和茶馆里流连忘返。相对而言，中国人和跟团旅游的外国人，则更喜欢住在桂林的豪华酒店里。
In the 2000s, as the domestic tourism industry in China boomed, so did Yangshuo’s. Midrange hotels and even a few luxury ones sprouted throughout the town, as well as in nearby villages and on the banks of the Yulong.
到了2000年代，随着中国国内旅游业的繁荣，阳朔的旅游业也蓬勃发展。在整个阳朔镇，以及附近的村子和遇龙河两岸，纷纷出现了中档旅馆，甚至还有几家豪华酒店。
The area has also attracted young Chinese wanting to decamp from cities to lead a simpler life.
该地区也吸引了中国的一些年轻人。他们想逃离城市，过更简单的生活。
“There was a lot of pressure at work,” said Li Chunhua, 32, who opened Little House Cafe near the east bank of the Yulong a year ago after leaving his job at an export company in Shanghai. “A lot of people from Beijing and Shanghai have moved here to get away from the cities and from all the stress.”
“工作压力很大，”32岁的李春华（音）说。一年前，他从上海的一家出口公司辞职，在遇龙河东岸附近开了一家咖啡馆。“很多人从北京和上海来到这里，想摆脱城市和所有的压力。”
Outside his cafe, rice fields glistening with water stretched from a roadway to a bank of the Yulong. Farmers with bamboo hats stood bent over in the paddies.
在他的咖啡馆外，稻田从路边一直蔓延至遇龙河岸边。水田里波光粼粼。在田间，戴着竹帽的农民弯腰劳作。
Other parts of the Yangshuo area have become more crowded as tourism has risen. At night in Yangshuo, thousands of visitors flock to a riverbank to watch a sound-and-light show created with the help of Zhang Yimou, China’s most famous film director, and featuring legions of dancers in ethnic costumes.
随着旅游业的发展，阳朔地区的其他地方也变得更加拥挤。在阳朔，晚上会有成千上万名游客涌向河边，观看声光表演。演出是在中国最著名的导演张艺谋的帮助下创作出来的，过程中会出现很多身穿民族服饰的舞蹈演员。
On a recent afternoon, dozens of tourists took pictures of each other in a field of lavender where someone had erected large, white letters that spell “love.”
前不久的一天下午，有人在一片薰衣草花田里竖起了巨大的白色字母，拼成了单词“love”。几十名游客在这片花田里给彼此拍照。
Though Yangshuo County agencies did not respond to requests for interviews, the park proposal suggests a sense of rivalry with Guilin and the Li River. In it, officials note that while Guilin and the Li River were designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations last year, Yangshuo County was named as having the single best karst landscape by Chinese National Geographic magazine. The proposal also insists a section of Yangshuo named Grape Town falls within the World Heritage Site.
尽管阳朔县相关机构未回复采访请求，但国家公园的申报材料表现出了与桂林其他地区和漓江竞争的感觉。在申报材料中，官员指出，尽管桂林和漓江去年被联合国列入了《世界遗产名录》(World Heritage Site)，但阳朔县也被《中国国家地理》杂志列为最美的喀斯特峰林。申报材料还坚持认为，阳朔县下辖的葡萄镇位于被列入《世界遗产名录》的地区范围以内。
The proposal has supporters among provincial scholars of tourism, who say that Guilin and Yangshuo and their two rivers should be regarded as equals.
这一建议在广西旅游学者中不乏支持者，他们表示，桂林和阳朔，漓江和遇龙河，应该被同等看待。
“Guilin has been a metropolis since the Tang dynasty and has the best preserved Ming dynasty houses,” said Yang Yongde, founder of the Tourism Research Institute at Guangxi University. “Yangshuo has authentic rural villages and fields. The two complement each other and are inseparable.”
“桂林自唐代以来就一直是大都市，它有保存最完好的明代建筑，”广西大学旅游科学研究所(现为广西西大旅游科学研究院——译注)创建人杨永德说道。“而阳朔有原汁原味的乡村和田野风光。这两个地方可以互补，是不可分的。”
The granting of national park status to the Yulong River and its surrounding villages “will give Yangshuo and Guilin more equal status on the average tourist’s itinerary,” Mr. Yang said. He noted that nearly 14 million visitors came to Yangshuo last year, and their average length of stay was just over two days. If the Yulong received national park status, that figure could increase to three days, Mr. Yang said.
授予遇龙河及其周边村庄以国家公园的地位，“将使游客在阳朔停留的平均时间和桂林的更接近，”杨永德说。他还指出，去年阳朔接待了近1400万游客，他们停留的平均天数只有2天多。如果遇龙河成为国家公园，这个数字可能会增加到3天。
China has yet to establish a national park system that prioritizes conservation, so it is unclear what ecological rules would apply to a “national geological park.”
中国还没有建立起可以明确环境保护优先级别的国家公园制度，所以目前并不清楚有哪些生态保护规则适用于一个“国家地质公园”。
A manager at Yangshuo Mountain Retreat, a long-established riverside lodge, pointed to a map and said that she had heard the area would be blocked off to outside traffic, and that people entering would have to pay a ticket fee at several booths on the roads. Villages and hotels would be enclosed in the tourist zone.
阳朔胜地酒店是一家经营多年的滨河酒店，这家酒店的一位经理指着地图上的一片区域讲，她听说这个地区会被圈起来，不准外来车辆出入，进入这一区域的人需要在路上好几个售票点买票。那里的村庄和旅馆也会被划入旅游区。
Standing on his bamboo raft as it floated past karst hills, Mr. Deng said that the national park, if it comes to pass, would no doubt attract more people to Yangshuo. “They will hear about the Yulong,” he said. “Where else can you take this kind of a ride on a raft? Not on the Li River.”
竹筏沿河飘流，经过两旁的喀斯特地貌山丘。站在筏上的邓宏友表示，如果有关国家公园的申请获得通过，肯定会吸引更多游客来阳朔。“他们会听人说起遇龙河，”他说。“哪儿还有地方能让你享受这样的竹筏游？漓江上是不行的。”