The Dalian city government agreed to shutter a chemical plant in an unusual display of responsiveness, bowing to environmental protests that brought thousands of residents onto the streets of the northeastern Chinese port city.

　　大连市数千名居民走上街头，举行环保抗议行动，要求关闭一家化工厂，政府做出了同意关闭的决定，这是不同寻常之举。

　　The decision to close the plant was announced just hours after Dalian's Communist Party Secretary Tang Jun, standing atop a police van, tried and failed to disperse a crowd authorities estimated at 12,000 with a pledge to relocate the plant at a future date.

　　就在关闭工厂的决定宣布前几小时，大连市委书记唐军站在一辆警车上保证会在日后搬迁这座工厂，试图驱散人群，但未能成功。当局估计抗议人数约为1.2万人。

　　“Time!” “Time!” “Tell us when!” members of the crowd shouted back at Mr. Tang, drowning him out.

　　人们向唐军大喊道，时间！时间！告诉我们什么时候搬！人群的呼声盖过了他的话音。

　　Just two years old, the privately owned Fujia petrochemical plant will be shut down immediately, the city government said late Sunday, reported the state-run Xinhua news agency.

　　国有媒体新华社报道说，大连市政府周日晚间宣布，大连福佳大化PX项目将立即停产并将尽快搬迁。这家私营企业刚刚成立两年。

　　The protests against it weren't a direct challenge to the local government policies, beyond the plant. Rather, there was widespread anxiety among the local community─possibly shared by local officials─that the seaside factory represented a potential environmental calamity.

　　这些抗议并非是对除这座工厂以外的当地政府政策的直接挑战。更确切的说是，当地社区普遍担心这家滨海工厂对环境存在潜在威胁，当地官员或许也有这种担忧。

　　The outcome was highly unusual in China, where large-scale public protests are often put down with force.

　　这样的结果在中国十分罕见。通常的大规模公众抗议通常都会遭到武力镇压。

　　Typically, analysts say, Beijing tolerates little dissent for fear protests will spread to cities where citizens have similar grievances or that demonstrators might demand more sensitive changes, such as greater political representation. Even when protests are permitted, organizers are often arrested later.

　　分析人士说，一般情况下，中国政府几乎不能容忍任何的异见，担心抗议会蔓延到市民有类似不满的城市，或者示威者可能会要求更多敏感性的改革，比如改善政治代表制度。即便是抗议得到了批准，组织者通常都会在后来遭到逮捕。

　　Security was heavy on Dalian streets on Sunday. State media reported that police in riot gear scuffled with the placard-carrying crowd. However, the demonstrations were largely peaceful and the crowds greeted the concession to close the plant with enthusiasm.

　　周日大连街头的警戒十分严密。国有媒体报道说，身穿防暴服的警察与手持标语牌的人群发生了扭打。不过示威活动基本是和平的，人群对政府关闭工厂的妥协表示积极欢迎。

　　“This is such good news,” said one demonstrator, 28-year-old Ken Zhang, who said he began days ago preparing T-shirts and banners. “I can't just let this toxic project harm the health of myself, my family and all my friends.”

　　28岁的示威者张垦（音）说，他从几天前就开始准备T恤和条幅了。他说，这真是个好消息；我只是不能让这个有毒工程损害家人、朋友以及我自己的健康。

　　Environmental concerns are a growing rallying point for China's generation of new homeowners and parents. Centered on China's richest urban areas, the nascent “not-in-my-backyard” movement has featured a number of peaceful walks by young professionals─many of them carrying Chinese flags─that are sometimes tolerated by authorities, themselves eager to support green causes.

　　环境问题日益成为中国新一代户主及家长提出抗议的一个主题。在中国，“邻避”运动（别在我家后院，简称NIMBY）刚刚开始兴起，它们以中国最富裕的城市地区为中心。年轻的专业人士发起了多次和平的“散步”抗议，其中许多人举着中国国旗。当局有时会予以容忍，他们自己也热衷于环保事业。

　　Yet rarely have protests been so bold, or appeared to prompt an official climb-down so quickly, as they did in Dalian. Momentum for the Dalian protest built all last week, sparked by the unexpected arrival of a powerful typhoon.

　　但极少有抗议活动会像大连这次这样如此高调，也没有如此迅速地导致政府让步。大连抗议活动是由一场强大台风的意外到来引起的，抗议势头在上周与日俱增。

　　When the deadly tropical storm Muifa missed Shanghai last weekend and bounced up the Chinese coast, Dalian residents feared its arrival would collapse sea walls and swamp the plant. In postings on microblogs, residents discussed parallels with Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which was hobbled by a tsunami and unaided by sea walls after the country's earthquake in March.

　　上周末极具破坏性的热带风暴“梅花”错过上海、沿着中国海岸线北上的时候，大连市民担心它的到来将会冲垮防波堤、淹没工厂。他们在微博上发贴，讨论此事与福岛第一核电站的相似之处。日本3月地震后，福岛第一核电站受到海啸袭击，防波堤也未能保护核电站。

　　Muifa churned seas with 20-meter (66feet) swells, breaking a dyke at the perimeter of Fujia near its large storage tanks. Local residents were evacuated and truckloads of workers supported by China's military worked to rebuild the walls, television footage showed. A thin layer of water lapped under parts of the plant, the footage showed.

　　“梅花”掀起20米高的海浪，突破了福佳集团最大存储罐附近的一处堤坝。电视画面显示，当地居民被疏散，在中国军方支援下，许多工人被卡车载运过来，着手重建堤坝。画面显示，工厂部分地区有少量积水。

　　Officials later said the dyke was repaired and nothing spilled.

　　官方后来说，堤坝已经修复，且没有造成泄漏。

　　On Sunday, photos circulated on the Internet showing thousands gathered in front of Dalian's government headquarters starting in the early morning. Through the day, the crowd of mostly young people grew, some carrying umbrellas to block the hot sun and others waving banners protesting the “PX Plant.”

　　周日网上流传的照片显示，数千人从清早开始聚集在大连市政府门前。聚集者多为年轻人，随着时间的推移，人数越来越多。其中一些人打着遮阳伞，另一些人挥舞着抗议这座“PX工厂”的标语。

　　The protest was aimed at a privately owned chemical plant called Fujia, which makes paraxylene, a petrochemical used to create raw materials for the production of polyester film and fabrics. Also known as PX, the chemical is carcinogenic.

　　抗议的对象是一座名为“福佳”的私营化工厂。该工厂生产对二甲苯，这种石化产品被用于制造聚酯薄膜和聚酯纤维产品的原料，也被称为“PX”，具有致癌性。

　　China's NIMBY movement has counted a string of successes for the country's nascent environmental movement.

　　“宁避”（NIMBY，“别建在我家后院”）运动为中国方兴未艾的环保运动取得了一系列成功。

　　The protest model is a June 2007 demonstration in the southern city of Xiamen, now dubbed the 'Xiamen stroll,' when citizens sent text messages encouraging their friends to meet for a “walk” or “stroll,' implicitly to grumble about another PX plant. That plant was built elsewhere two years later.

　　这次抗议活动是仿效2007年6月发生在南部城市厦门的一场游行。那次游行现在被称为“厦门散步”，当时市民们通过发短信鼓励朋友们一块出来“散步”，以含蓄的方式对另一座PX工厂表达不满。两年过后，那座工厂建到了别的地方。

　　Similar walks have taken place in other Chinese cities, but they are usually smaller affairs. After citizens in one Shanghai neighborhood walked to oppose the extension of a fast rail line, the government scrapped the project, though its high cost likely factored into the decision.

　　同样的散步也曾发生在中国其他城市，不过一般没有这么大的规模。上海一个社区的居民曾通过散步反对延长一条快轨线，后来政府取消了这个项目，但项目的高成本可能是决定取消的原因之一。

　　Far more numerous, analysts say, are clashes in rural China, where villagers challenge industrial encroachment on farms and rarely succeed.

　　分析人士说，中国农村地区的冲突数量要多得多。村民们反对工业占用农田，但鲜有成功。

　　Even before Sunday's rally, there were signs the government was moving to shut the plant, located near the East China Sea on the Dalian peninsula. On Aug. 10, the Chinese news agency Xinhua said Dalian leaders held an urgent meeting that concluded a date for relocation should be set.

　　周日大连集会之前，已经有迹象表明政府打算关闭那座靠近东海、位于辽东半岛的工厂。8月10日，官方通讯社新华社说，大连领导人召开了紧急会议，决定设定一个搬迁日期。

　　In past interviews, Dalian policy makers have spoken about their futuristic high-technology sector that has drawn investors like chip maker Intel Inc. One of the city's top tourist attractions is the East Sea aquarium.However, the city's modern economy was founded on heavy steel, petrochemicals and manufacturing.Dalian has offered generous incentives to big industrial companies, including Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., to move their factories away from the city center.

　　在过去的采访中，大连决策者曾谈起过他们具有未来色彩的高科技行业，这一行业已经吸引了芯片制造商英特尔(Intel Inc.)等公司来大连投资。这座城市最吸引旅游者的就是东海的丰富水产。但大连的现代化经济是建立在钢铁、石化和制造业基础上的。它给固特异(Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.)等大型工业企业提供了慷慨的优惠，鼓励它们将工厂移出市中心。