英语新闻｜山东淄博烧烤火出圈！

Zibo's special barbecue has gone viral. The city in Shandong province has long sought to publicize its unique take on roasted skewers of meat, veggies, seafood and assorted other foodstuffs, hoping that it would become a must-try "brand" of the city. 

淄博烧烤火出圈了。山东省的这座城市一直在努力宣传其独特的烤肉串，包括肉类、蔬菜、海鲜和各种其他食品，希望它能成为这座城市必尝的“品牌”。

Until late February this year, the publicity of Zibo barbecue had achieved limited success. That is, until some college students attending a job fair in the city went to try the barbecue and took videos of themselves enjoying the food and posted them onto social media.

长期以来，淄博一直在努力宣传其独特的烧烤与美食，但收效甚微。直到一些大学生来淄博参加双选会，尝试了淄博烧烤，并拍摄了“撸串”视频发布到社交媒体上，事情发生了变化。

The passionate youths unknowingly started a trend that has spurred the hashtag: "College students visit Zibo to try barbecue in groups" to go viral on social media.

淄博烧烤被外地的大学生“攻占”了，不知不觉掀起了一股潮流，一则“大学生组团到淄博吃烧烤”的话题更是登上短视频平台热榜。

As a result, youths from across the country have started to pour into Zibo to try its now famous barbecue.

于是，来自全国各地的年轻人开始涌入淄博吃烧烤。

What makes barbecue special in Zibo is that the skewers are 70-80 percent cooked before being brought to the table, where diners can finish off the cooking at their own little stove of hot coals. On top of that, diners have pancakes, scallions and other dressings at the table, so they are able to assemble their own barbecue-filled package a bit like how traditional Peking duck is prepared.

淄博烧烤不同于“烤完直接上桌吃”，它的特别之处在于“半自助”模式——上桌的肉串只烤到七八成熟，后续火候由食客自己掌握。除此之外，餐桌上还有煎饼、葱花和其他调味料，用餐的人们就可以像传统的北京烤鸭一样，自己制作一套烧烤套餐。

Xu Jiayue, a student from Shandong Transport Vocational College, came to Zibo from neighboring city Weifang to try the barbecue for herself on Tuesday. "The stoves allow us to cook the meat, which gives us a feeling of participation, and it allows us to eat the meat at a perfect temperature, which ensures a good taste and flavor," she said.

来自山东交通职业学院的学生Xu Jiayue从潍坊来到淄博品尝烧烤。她说：“我们可以自己用炉子烤肉，更有参与感，而且保证了串串有温度，味道也更好。”

Zibo, a city with 4.5 million people, has had record numbers of arrivals at its train station since March 4. A total of 27,065 visitors arrived on Saturday, setting a record for daily passengers arriving at the railway station in the past three years.

淄博是一个拥有450万人口的城市，自3月4日以来，其火车站的到达人数创下了历史新高，3月4日更是达到27065人，创近3年以来最高纪录。

College students from neighboring cities accounted for a large proportion of the passengers, officials from the train station said.

火车站工作人员说，来自周围城市的大学生占很大一部分。

On Wednesday afternoon, one barbecue restaurant owner said that there were long lines outside the restaurant every day for the past two weeks. Several restaurants said they were selling more than 10,000 skewers of meat, chicken wings or vegetables a day during the past week, especially on the weekend. Once the hungry diners have had their fill of barbecue, many of them have been setting out to see Zibo's other attractions while they're in the area.

3月22日下午，淄博的一家烧烤店的老板说，过去两周，餐馆外面每天都排着长队。几家餐馆表示，在过去的一周，尤其是周末，他们每天卖出1万多串烤串。很多客人吃饱了就在周围游览淄博的景点。

"Zibo barbecue going viral is not accidental," Yin Qidi, head of the city's commerce bureau, said at a news conference held to address the barbecue craze on Friday. The once traditional industrial city has been putting a lot of effort into developing the city into a young people friendly one, Yin said, adding that the city offers rooms with extra discounts in designated hotels to outside visitors between the ages of 18 and 35.

3月10日，淄博政府还专门召开了新闻发布会，淄博市商务局局长殷启迪在会上表示，“淄博烧烤迅速走红并非偶然”，这座曾经的传统工业城市一直在努力将其发展成为一个对年轻人友好的城市。并补充说，淄博为18岁至35岁的外来游客在指定酒店提供打折房间。

Local statistics showed several hotels offering such services for young people were fully booked on Wednesday.

当地统计数据显示，3月15日，几家为年轻人提供此类服务的酒店都已预订一空。

To capitalize on its recent fame, the city plans to hold a barbecue festival around the May Day holiday, said Yin. Authorities including the market supervision and public security have joined in to ensure food safety and reasonable pricing in the "barbecue sector", and the city's public transportation company has opened 21 bus lines especially for transporting people to barbecue restaurants.

殷启迪说，淄博将于五一前后举办烧烤节。为确保“烧烤行业”的食品安全和合理定价，市场监管和公安部门在内的有关部门已经加入进来。淄博市公共交通有限公司还推出21条定制专线，并在火车站安排志愿者，为往返旅客提供交通、住宿、烧烤、旅游线路等咨询推介等服务。

Passionate

英 [ˈpæʃənət]   美  [ˈpæʃənət]

adj. 狂热的

Assemble

英 [əˈsemb(ə)l]   美  [əˈsemb(ə)l]

v. （使）集合