A program inviting Chinese city dwellers to reconnect with nature by visiting a Shanghai enclosure with thousands of fireflies inside has been suspended after conservationists warned that it could lead to ecological damage and the local authorities raised safety concerns.
上海一家主题园以园内上万只萤火虫为主题，邀请生活在城市的人们重新接触大自然，但该活动目前已经被叫停。环保人士警告称，这种萤火虫观赏活动有可能造成生态破坏，当地政府也提出了安全方面的顾虑。
“Shanghai’s very first firefly-themed park will open July 10,” a notice on the travel site mafengwo.cn had announced. “Visitors will be surrounded by tens of thousands of fireflies. It will be like walking through the Milky Way.”
“上海第一个萤火虫公园即将在7月10日正式开放，”旅游网站“蚂蜂窝”上的一则告示显示。“将有数万只萤火虫同时呈现，围绕在游客的身旁漫天飞舞，仿佛置身银河之中。”
The program was to run until Oct. 7.
该活动原计划一直办到10月7日。
On Thursday, a day before the opening, however, the plan was called off, according to a report on eastday.com, a Shanghai-based news portal. “This program has not been cleared to go ahead and has serious safety issues,” the report quoted the police as saying. The authorities ordered the organizers “to amend their proposal,” but added that “it is not clear whether the event still has a chance to open or when.”
但是根据上海新闻门户网站东方网报道，周四，也就是开园前一天，活动被叫停。“该项目未经审批，存在重大安全隐患，”报道援引警方的话说。相关主管部门勒令主办方整改，然而“该项目今后启不启动、何时启动，还不得而知。”
The cancellation is bound to leave many disappointed: On dianping.com, a business review and group-buying site, tickets for the first three days of the event were sold out by Wednesday. But the announcement is also likely to please conservationists, who had been campaigning against the firefly tours and others like it across China.
活动取消势必带来诸多遗憾：在商业点评团购网站大众点评网上，活动前三天的票在周三就已经售罄。但此消息会让环保人士感到满意，他们一直在全国范围内呼吁抵制类似的萤火虫展。
“We ask the public to stay away from this kind of firefly watch,” said Zhu Xiangyu, the director of the Qinghuan Volunteer Service Center, a Nanjing-based environmental organization and one of the sponsors of an online petition to block the opening of the Shanghai park. “People think it’s romantic, when it’s in fact lethal.”
“我们呼吁公众远离这类萤火虫观赏活动，”南京青环志愿者服务中心负责人朱翔宇说，该组织是网上公开信呼吁抵制上海开放该主题公园的发起方之一。“人们觉得这是浪漫的事，但它的本质是杀戮。”
Fireflies were once a familiar part of summer evenings in much of China. But the tiny flashes that used to light up fields have dwindled — lost, experts say, to pollution and to altered natural habitats.
萤火虫过去是中国夏日夜晚熟悉的景象，但这些曾点亮田野的闪烁小光点数量已经减少——专家称，这是因为污染和自然栖息地改变导致的。
In recent years, a number of commercial enterprises in China have tried to tap into nostalgia for the pulsating flickers. Firefly Park, in the southeastern city of Xiamen, was opened in 2010 by an LED lighting company and offers firefly-watching tours. On the shopping site taobao.com, it’s possible to order a jar of fireflies for around 100 renminbi, or $16.
最近几年，中国的一些商家试图利用人们对这些一闪一闪光点的怀念获利。2010年，一家生产LED的公司在中国东南城市厦门开放了一家萤火虫公园，供游客观赏萤火虫。在购物网站淘宝网上，人们可以以100元人民币左右的价格购买到一罐萤火虫。
“It’s a rather emotional experience, for people of all ages,” said Xu Song, the founder of Nanhu Firefly Park in the southern city of Guangzhou. “Young visitors find it romantic, while older people recall their childhoods.”
“这是非凡的情感体验，对于各年龄层的人都是，”广州南湖游乐园萤火虫公园创办人许松说。“年轻游人觉得很浪漫，而年纪大的人则能回想起童年。”
Firefly tours don’t always end well. Last summer in Hangzhou, a disappointed crowd ravaged a firefly camp after they spent two hours without seeing any flickers, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Organizers blamed cool temperatures and gave visitors refunds.
萤火虫之旅的结局并不总是皆大欢喜。去年夏天，杭州有一群游客在两个小时内一只萤火虫也没看到。据新华社报道，失望的人群打砸了活动现场，组织方归咎于气温太低，给予游客退票补偿。
In Wuhan last May, about 5,000 people thronged a firefly park on its opening day, according to a local newspaper. The venue filled up before many ticketholders could enter. Those who managed to make it in found themselves on a 50-meter, or 165-foot, walkway with netting on all sides to prevent the few fireflies that were present from escaping.
去年5月，约5000人在开园首日涌入武汉萤火虫公园，当地报纸报道。一些持票人尚未入园，园内就已经爆满。那些挤入场内的人发现自己置身于一个50米长的栈道，四周被纱网包围，防止零星的萤火虫飞走。
On Wednesday, officials in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, called off a plan to release fireflies in a local shopping mall, citing safety regulations.
周三，河南省会郑州的官员以安全法规为由，叫停了当地一家商场放飞萤火虫的计划。
“Ninety percent of firefly tours in China are fake,” said Mr. Xu of Nanhu Firefly Park. “They just catch wild fireflies and put them in a tent.”
“中国90%的萤火虫参观都是假的，”南湖萤火虫公园的许松说。“他们只是把野生萤火虫抓回来，然后放进帐篷里。”
Mr. Xu said he created his park on five acres in suburban Guangzhou in 2013, carefully preparing the soil and water and introducing food sources like snails before planting the larvae. The locally bred firefly population still needs to be supplemented by insects caught in the wild, however.
许松说，2013年，他在广州市郊建造了这个面积30亩的公园。在投放萤火虫幼虫之前，他对土壤和水质做了精心准备，并引进了蜗牛等食物来源。尽管如此，还是需要用在野外捕捉的萤火虫来补充本地饲养的萤火虫的数量。
“The visitors pay to see the twinkles, and you have to make them happy,” he said.
他说，“游客们花钱来看这些闪闪发光的东西，你得让他们满意啊。”
Conservationists had criticized the planned Shanghai firefly park for importing fireflies captured far from the city.
环保人士还谴责了计划中的上海萤火虫公园从距离城市很远的地方捕捉萤火虫的做法。
“You have to worry about artificial transfer of species,” said Fu Xinhua, a biologist at Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, and the author of “Fireflies in China.” “It threatens the indigenous ecosystem and the species being brought in may not be able to survive.”
“我们应该警惕物种的人工转移，”武汉华中农业大学生物学家、《萤火虫在中国》一书的作者付新华说。“这会威胁当地生态系统，而且从其他地方引进的物种可能无法存活。”
China is home to about 200 species of fireflies, but their numbers are rapidly declining, Mr. Fu said. In addition to habitat loss, the insects have been hit hard by artificial light from buildings and motor vehicles, which is believed to disrupt the signals they use for communications and mating.
付新华说，中国有大约200种萤火虫，但数量在迅速减少。除了栖息地流失以外，萤火虫还因为建筑物和机动车的人造灯光受到了严重影响。据信，这些灯光会扰了萤火虫用来交流和交配的信号。
“A firefly watch needs to be eco-friendly,” Mr. Fu said. “Go to the sanctuaries. Go into the wild.”
“观看萤火虫应该以不损害生态环境为前提，” 付新华说。“去保护基地看，去野外看吧。”
Mr. Fu runs a habitat recovery program in Xianning, Hubei Province. Conservation and breeding help restore the population, while tourist revenues are used to compensate local rice farmers for not using pesticides.
付新华在湖北咸宁开展了一个栖息地恢复项目。在保护和养殖工作的帮助下，萤火虫的数量得以恢复，游客的参观费还被用来补偿当地不使用杀虫剂的稻农。
Conservationists are racing to catch up with growing interest in firefly tours. Mr. Xu’s Nanhu Firefly Park in Guangzhou received more than 10,000 visitors last year, and he said he expected that number to double this year.
人们对萤火虫参观的兴趣与日俱增，保育人士应付不暇。去年，许松在广州的南湖萤火虫公园接待了逾1万名游客，他还说今年人数可能会翻番。
One firefly habitat in Nanjing has become so popular that “people fly in from other provinces, which is scary,” said Mr. Zhu of the Qinghuan Volunteer Service Center. To help manage the crowds, he said, volunteers from local universities guide visitors, and the authorities have even stopped motor vehicles from entering the area.
南京的一个萤火虫栖息地非常受欢迎，“甚至有人从外省坐飞机过来，这很恐怖，” 青环志愿者服务中心的朱翔宇说。他说，为了保持秩序，来自当地大学的志愿者会为游客充当向导，官方还禁止了机动车进入这个区域。
“People do listen,” Mr. Zhu said. “They don’t bring flashlights anymore. But the problem is there are just too many of them, up to 10,000 on a busy night.”
“你说他们会听的，”朱翔宇说。“现在没人带手电筒了。但问题是，游客实在太多，有时一晚上能达到1万人。”