1996年8月底一个温热而清朗的夜晚，彼得·海斯勒从重庆出发，乘慢船，顺江而下来到涪陵。涪陵没有铁路，历来是四川省的贫困地区，公路非常糟糕。去哪里你都得坐船，但多半你哪里也不会去。
在随后的两年，这座城市就是他的家。 在这里，海斯勒有时是一个旁观者，有时又置身于当地的生活之中，这种亲疏结合的观察构成了在四川停留两年的部分生活。 2001年，也就是这本彼得·海斯勒著李雪顺译的《江城》在美国出版的时候，一条通往重庆的高速公路通车了，一条铁路也正在修建之中，基本上再也没有人坐船去涪陵了。这座城市正在飞速发展着，在过去的二十年，那样一种转型变化的感觉——接二连三、冷酷无情、势不可挡——正是中国的本质特征。很难相信，这个国家曾经完全是另外一种模样，是19世纪西方人眼中“永远停滞的民族”。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2078.html
2003年，三峡大坝一期完工后，不断上涨的江水将陆续淹没那些江畔之城，对于大多数中国人来说，这正是不断变革的对应面：贫穷、烂路、慢船。 文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2078.html
《江城》并不是一本关于中国的书，它只涉及一小段特定时期内中国的某个小地方。从地理和历史上看，涪陵位于江河中游，所以人们有时很难看清她从何而来，又去往何处。 在1996年至1998年间，彼得·海斯勒学会了热爱涪陵。能再次回到长江上的感觉真好，哪怕它的旧时激流只存于记忆之中。文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2078.html
In the heart of China's Sichuan province lies the small city of Fuling. Surrounded by the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, Fuling has long been a place of continuity, far from the bustling political centers of Beijing and Shanghai. But now Fuling is heading down a new path, and gradually, along with scores of other towns in this vast and ever-evolving country, it is becoming a place of change and vitality, tension and reform, disruption and growth. As the people of Fuling hold on to the China they know, they are also opening up and struggling to adapt to a world in which their fate is uncertain.文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2078.html
Fuling's position at the crossroads came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1996, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. He found himself teaching English and American literature at the local college, discovering how Shakespeare and other classics look when seen through the eyes of students who have been raised in the Sichuan countryside and educated in Communist Party doctrine. His students, though, are the ones who taught him about the ways of Fuling ? and about the complex process of understanding that takes place when one is immersed in a radically different society.文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2078.html
As he learns the language and comes to know the people, Hessler begins to see that it is indeed a unique moment for Fuling. In its past is Communist China's troubled history ? the struggles of land reform, the decades of misguided economic policies, and the unthinkable damage of the Cultural Revolution ? and in the future is the Three Gorges Dam, which upon completion will partly flood thecity and force the resettlement of more than a million people. Making his way in the city and traveling by boat and train throughout Sichuan province and beyond, Hessler offers vivid descriptions of the people he meets, from priests to prostitutes and peasants to professors, and gives voice to their views. This is both an intimate personal story of his life in Fuling and a colorful, beautifully written account of the surrounding landscape and its history. Imaginative, poignant, funny, and utterly compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that, much like China itself, is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2078.html
文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2078.html文章源自：力哥爱英语（ienglish521.com）力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2078.html
