When the largest earthquake in Taiwan in half a century struck off its east coast, the buildings in the closest city, Hualien, swayed and rocked. As more than 300 aftershocks rocked the island over the next 24 hours to Thursday morning, the buildings shook again and again.
当台湾东海岸发生半个世纪以来最大的地震时，距离最近的城市花莲的建筑物摇摇晃晃。在接下来直到周四上午的24小时里，300多次余震冲击了整个岛屿，建筑物一次又一次地摇晃。

But for the most part, they stood.
但大多数情况下，它们仍屹立不倒。

Even the two buildings that suffered the most damage remained largely intact, allowing residents to climb to safety out the windows of upper stories. One of them, the rounded, red brick Uranus Building, which leaned precariously after its first floors collapsed, was mostly drawing curious onlookers.
即使是受损最严重的两栋大楼也基本没有崩塌，居民可以从高层的窗户爬到安全的地方。其中圆形的红砖天王星大楼在一楼坍塌后摇摇欲坠，吸引了许多好奇的围观者。

The building is a reminder of how much Taiwan has prepared for disasters like the magnitude-7.4 earthquake that jolted the island on Wednesday. Perhaps because of improvements in building codes, greater public awareness and highly trained search-and-rescue operations — and, likely, a dose of good luck — the casualty figures were relatively low. By Thursday, 10 people had died and more than 1,000 others were injured. Several dozen were missing.
这座建筑提醒人们，对于上周三发生的7.4级地震那样的灾害，台湾已经做好了充分的准备。也许是由于建筑规范的改进、公众意识的提高和训练有素的搜救行动，再加上可能的好运气，此次地震的伤亡数字相对较低。截至周四，已有10人死亡，1000多人受伤，另有数十人失踪。

“Similar level earthquakes in other societies have killed far more people,” said Daniel Aldrich, a director of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University. Of Taiwan, he added: “And most of these deaths, it seems, have come from rock slides and boulders, rather than building collapses.”
美国东北大学全球复原力研究所所长丹尼尔·奥尔德里奇表示：“在其他社会，类似级别的地震造成的死亡人数要多得多。”对于台湾的这次地震，他还说，“大多数死亡似乎都是因为山体滑坡和巨石，而不是建筑倒塌。”

Across the island, rail traffic had resumed by Thursday, including trains to Hualien. Workers who had been stuck in a rock quarry were lifted out by helicopter. Roads were slowly being repaired. Hundreds of people were stranded at a hotel near a national park because of a blocked road, but they were visited by rescuers and medics.
截至上周四，全台铁路交通已经恢复，包括开往花莲的列车。困在采石场的工人已被直升机救出。道路正在慢慢修复。由于道路受阻，数百人被困在一座国家公园附近的一家饭店里，但救援人员和医护人员已抵达现场。

On Thursday in Hualien city, the area around the Uranus Building was sealed off, while construction workers tried to prevent the leaning structure from toppling completely. First they placed three-legged concrete blocks that resembled giant Lego pieces in front of the building, and then they piled dirt and rocks on top of those blocks with excavators.
周四，花莲市天王星大楼周围的地区被封锁，建筑工人试图阻止倾斜的建筑完全倒塌。首先，他们在大楼前放置了类似于巨大乐高积木的三脚混凝土块，然后用挖掘机将泥土和石块堆放在这些混凝土块上。

“We came to see for ourselves how serious it was, why it has tilted,” said Chang Mei-chu, 66, a retiree who rode a scooter with her husband Lai Yung-chi, 72, to the building on Thursday. Mr. Lai said he was a retired builder who used to install power and water pipes in buildings, and so he knew about building standards. The couple’s apartment, near Hualien’s train station, had not been badly damaged, he said.
66岁的退休人员张美珠（音）周四与72岁的丈夫赖勇智（音）骑着摩托车来到大楼前，她说：“我们是来亲眼看看情况有多严重，为什么会倾斜。”赖先生说，他是一名退休建筑工人，曾经为这栋大楼安装过水电管道，因此他了解建筑标准。他说他们居住的公寓位于花莲火车站附近，没有受到严重破坏。

“I wasn’t worried about our building, because I know they paid attention to earthquake resistance when building it. I watched them pour the cement to make sure,” Mr. Lai said. “There have been improvements. After each earthquake, they raise the standards some more.”
“我并不担心我们的大楼，因为我知道他们在建造时注意到了抗震性。我亲眼看到他们浇注水泥，以确保万无一失，”赖先生说。“一直都有在改进。每次地震后，他们都会再提高一些标准。”

It was possible to walk for city blocks without seeing clear signs of the powerful earthquake. Many buildings remained intact, some of them old and weather-worn; others modern, multistory concrete-and-glass structures. Shops were open, selling coffee, ice cream and betel nuts. Next to the Uranus Building, a popular night market with food stalls offering fried seafood, dumplings and sweets was up and running by Thursday evening.
走过几个街区，几乎看不到强震留下的明显痕迹。许多建筑完好无损，其中一些是饱经风霜的老建筑，另一些则是多层混凝土玻璃结构的现代建筑。商店营业，出售咖啡、冰淇淋和槟榔。在天王星大楼旁边，一个备受欢迎的夜市在周四傍晚已经开张营业，那里有卖炸海鲜、饺子和甜食等食品的小吃摊。

Earthquakes are unavoidable in Taiwan, which sits on multiple active faults. Decades of work learning from other disasters, implementing strict building codes and increasing public awareness have gone into helping its people weather frequent strong quakes.
台湾位于多条活跃断层上，地震不可避免。数十年来，台湾从其他灾难中吸取教训，实施了严格的建筑规范，提高公众意识，这些都有助于民众抵御频繁发生的强烈地震。

Not far from the Uranus Building, for example, officials had inspected a building with cracked pillars and concluded that it was dangerous to stay in. Residents were given 15 minutes to dash inside and retrieve as many belongings as they could. Some ran out with computers, while others threw bags of clothes out of windows onto the street, which was also still littered with broken glass and cement fragments from the quake.
例如，在离天王星大楼不远的地方，官员们检查了一栋柱子开裂的大楼，认定呆在里面很危险。居民们有15分钟的时间冲进楼里，尽可能多地取走自己的物品。一些人拿着电脑跑了出来，另一些人则把一袋袋衣服从窗户扔到街上，街上还到处是地震留下的碎玻璃和水泥碎片。

One of its residents, Chen Ching-ming, a preacher at a church next door, said he thought the building might be torn down. He was able to salvage a TV and some bedding, which now sat on the sidewalk, and was preparing to go back in for more. “I’ll lose a lot of valuable things — a fridge, a microwave, a washing machine,” he said. “All gone.”
大楼的住户之一、隔壁教堂的传教士陈清明（音）说，他认为这栋楼可能会被拆掉。他赶忙从楼里带走了一台电视机和一些床上用品，这些东西现在就堆在人行道上，他正准备回去拿更多物品。“我会失去很多值钱的东西——冰箱、微波炉、洗衣机，”他说。“全都没了。”

Requirements for earthquake resistance have been built into Taiwan’s building codes since 1974. In the decades since, the writers of Taiwan’s building code also applied lessons learned from other major earthquakes around the world, including in Mexico and Los Angeles, to strengthen Taiwan’s code.
自1974年起，抗震要求就已纳入台湾的建筑规范中。在此后的几十年里，台湾建筑规范的制定者还借鉴了世界各地其他大型地震（包括墨西哥和洛杉矶）的经验教训，以加强台湾的建筑规范。

After more than 2,400 people were killed and at least 10,000 others injured during the Chi-Chi quake of 1999, thousands of buildings built before the quake were reviewed and reinforced. After another strong quake in 2018 in Hualien, the government ordered a new round of building inspections. Since then, multiple updates to the building code have been released.
1999年的“九二一大地震”造成2400多人死亡、至少1万人受伤后，当局对地震前建造的数以千计建筑物进行了审查和加固。2018年花莲发生强震后，政府下令进行新一轮的建筑检查。自那之后，当局多次对建筑规范予以更新。

“We have retrofitted more than 10,000 school buildings in the last 20 years,” said Chung-Che Chou, the director general of the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in Taipei.
“在过去20年里，我们已经改造了1万多座校舍，”台北国家地震工程研究中心主任周中哲说。

The government had also helped reinforce private apartment buildings over the past six years by adding new steel braces and increasing column and beam sizes, Dr. Chou said. Not far from the buildings that partially collapsed in Hualien, some of the older buildings that had been retrofitted in this way survived Wednesday’s quake, he said.
周中哲说，过去六年来，政府还通过添加新的钢支撑以及加粗柱和梁的尺寸来帮助加固私人公寓楼。他说，在花莲部分倒塌的建筑物附近，一些以这种方式改造的老建筑在周三的地震中得以幸免于难。

The result of all this is that even Taiwan’s tallest skyscrapers can withstand regular seismic jolts. The capital city’s most iconic building, Taipei 101, once the tallest building in the world, was engineered to stand through typhoon winds and frequent quakes. Still, some experts say that more needs to be done to either strengthen or demolish structures that don’t meet standards, and such calls have grown louder in the wake of the latest earthquake.
所有这一切的结果是，即使是台湾最高的摩天大楼也能承受常规地震。台北101大楼是台北最具标志性的建筑，也曾经是世界上最高的建筑，其设计能够抵御台风和频繁的地震。尽管如此，一些专家表示，需要采取更多措施来加固或拆除不符合标准的建筑物，在最近的地震发生后，这种呼声越来越高。

Taiwan has another major reason to protect its infrastructure: It is home to the majority of production for the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest maker of advanced computer chips. The supply chain for electronics from smartphones to cars to fighter jets rests on the output of TSMC’s factories, which make these chips in facilities that cost billions of dollars to build.
台湾保护其基础设施的另一个重要原因是：世界上最大的先进计算机芯片制造商台积电的大部分生产都在台湾进行。 从智能手机到汽车，再到战斗机的电子产品供应链都依赖于台积电工厂的产品，这些工厂在耗资数十亿美元建造的设施中生产这些芯片。

The 1999 quake also prompted TSMC to take extra steps to insulate its factories from earthquake damage. The company made major structural adjustments and adopted new technologies like early warning systems. When another large quake struck the southern city of Kaohsiung in February 2016, TSMC’s two nearby factories survived without structural damage. 1999年的地震还促使台积电采取额外措施，保护工厂免受地震损坏。公司进行了重大结构调整，采用了预警系统等新技术。2016年2月，南部城市高雄再次发生大地震时，台积电在该地附近的两家工厂都平安无事，没有出现结构性损坏。
一队准备在

Taiwan has made strides in its response to disasters, experts say. In the first 24 hours after the quake, rescuers freed hundreds of people who were trapped in cars in between rockfalls on the highway and stranded on mountain ledges in rock quarries.
专家表示，台湾在应对灾害方面取得了长足进步。地震发生后的最初24小时内，救援人员解救了数以百计人员，他们被困在高速公路落石之间的汽车中，还有人被困在采石场山脊上。

“After years of hard work on capacity building, the overall performance of the island has improved significantly,” said Bruce Wong, an emergency management consultant in Hong Kong. Taiwan’s rescue teams have come to specialize in complex efforts, he said, and it has also been able to tap the skills of trained volunteers.
“经过多年的能力建设努力，台湾的整体表现已显着改善，”香港应急管理顾问王肇锋表示。他说，台湾的救援队已经开始专门从事复杂的救援工作，而且还能够利用训练有素的志愿者的技能。

Taiwan’s resilience also stems from a strong civil society that is involved in public preparedness for disasters.
台湾的抗灾能力还源于这里有一个强大的公民社会，为各种灾害做好了公众应急准备。

Ou Chi-hu, a member of a group of Taiwanese military veterans, was helping distribute water and other supplies at a school that was serving as a shelter for displaced residents in Hualien. He said that people had learned from the 1999 earthquake how to be more prepared.
台湾退伍军人团体成员欧奇虎（音）正在花莲一所学校帮助分发水和其他物资，这所学校为无家可归的居民提供庇护。他说，人们从1999年的地震中学到了如何做好准备。

“They know to shelter in a corner of the room or somewhere else safer,” he said. Many residents also keep a bag of essentials next to their beds, and own fire extinguishers, he added.
“他们知道要躲在房间的角落或其他更安全的地方，”他说。 许多居民还会在床边放置一包必需品，并且家中有灭火器，他说道。

Around him, a dozen or so other charities and groups were offering residents food, money, counseling and childcare. The Tzu Chi Foundation, a large Taiwanese Buddhist charity, provided tents for families to use inside the school hall so they could have more privacy. Huang Yu-chi, a disaster relief manager with the foundation, said nonprofits had learned from earlier disasters.
在他周围，大约有十几个其他慈善机构和团体正在为居民提供食物、金钱、咨询和儿童看护。台湾大型佛教慈善机构慈济基金会为家庭提供了在学校礼堂内使用的帐篷，这样他们就可以拥有更多的隐私。该基金会的灾害管理专员黄玉琪表示，非营利组织已经从早期的灾难中吸取了教训。

“Now we’re more systematic and have a better idea of disaster prevention,” Mr. Huang said.
“现在我们的防灾工作更加系统化，有了更好的理念，”黄先生说。

本文摄影：Lam Yik Fei

Mike Ives自首尔对本文有报道贡献。

储百亮(Chris Buckley)是《纽约时报》首席中国记者，在台北报道中国和台湾问题，重点关注政治、社会变革以及安全和军事问题。

Meaghan Tobin是时报科技记者，常驻台北，报道亚洲地区的商业和科技新闻，重点关注中国。

Siyi Zhao是时报记者/研究员，自首尔报道中国大陆新闻。

翻译：纽约时报中文网