文字功夫了得！观察力与思考力亦了得！
我与作者有同样的担心，生怕这为奥运而做的环保努力只是昙花一现，而我们这些北京人却要长久生活在这里。

What a nice piece of writing! Great observatioon and critical thinking! I share the same concerns with the author. We are afraid that the conservation efforts before Olympics would be gone in a blink of an eye, and that we as local residents of Beijing would have to live with it forever.

楼上两位看来对北京的公共交通状况不太了解。
在北京，买车不行，因为太堵。不买车更不行，因为地铁不发达，很多地方都还没通。坐公交那个拥挤、肮脏你根本无法想象，而且你经常需要在寒风中等半个小时到一个小时才能坐上公车。

It seems that the above two readers don't know the public transportation situation in Beijing very well. In Beijing, it is not a good idea to own a car, because the traffic is always terrible. However it is worse if you don’t have a private car, because the metro line is not big enough and many places are out of the reach of metro. Talking about public transportation, you have no idea how crowded and how dirty it is. And too often you have to wait in the cold wind for more than half an hour, or even an hour, to get on a bus.

非常同意作者的建议，北京应该把功能分化，至少不要老在人民大会堂这种城市最中心开会。我家住在天安门旁边，人民大会堂一开重要会议，长安街就禁行，我只能慢慢等待会议代表的车都走完才能走。我经常要坐在车里眼睁睁看着就在家门口却不能到家。每次等半小时左右，真是痛苦，如果是打车至少等掉十几块钱，真是心疼！

I totally agree with the author. Beijing should distribute the use of venues. Instead of holding conferences only in The Great Hall of the People, other venues could be considered to hold conferences. I live nearby Tian’anmen Square. Every time when there’s a conference going on in The Great Hall of the People the whole street will be blocked. I can’t enter until the conference ends. It usually takes me more than half an hour waiting. If I happened to be in a taxi, it would cost more than 10 yuan (about 1 pound), which is pretty expensive.

作者说得好，为什么不是一个水资源相对宽裕、人口压力相对较小的中国城市呢？
北京已经太拥挤了，太臃肿了，太庞大了，再加上奥运会，如果没有强制市民出行的措施，这城市非爆炸了不可！

Good point. “why Beijing bid for the games, rather than another city with a smaller population and greater water resource?”
Beijing is already overcrowded, overstaffed and too huge. When in the 2008 Olympics, if there were not any measures taken to curb the commutes of residents, I am afraid the city will explode under the pressure of population.

即使是在天子脚下的北京，环境问题尚且如此难以解决，那么其它省市呢？

Even in our capital city Beijing, it is so difficult to resolve environmental problems, let alone other provinces..

环保应该成为和经济发展并列的头等大事。
水污染最高罚款一百万人民币的力度还远远不够，应该有更严厉的措施。且不说水污染所造成的不知要持续多少年的经济损失，单单是成千上万的人因为水污染患上绝症，我觉得污染者杀头都不为过。

Environmental protection should be taken as equally important as economic growth. The fine for water pollution is only 1 million yuan (about 66,606 pounds) which I think is nowhere near enough. What we need is more severe punishments. Aside from the economic costs caused by water pollution, diseases caused by it have made millions of people suffer. Therefore, I think those who cause serious water pollution should maybe even be executed.

明年之后，将会有食水而战。北京现在所做的一切都是为了奥运会。可想而知，中国人的生命是多么没有价值。改善环境污染是长久之机，而不是仅仅为了奥运会。中国人很可悲可以生活在暗无天日。缺水的省市还得要向皇上供水。好像别的省市都不是人了。由于生活在不同的城市，生命的价值都的低一等。可悲！

After next year, there will be a battle over food and water. Everything Beijing does now is for the Olympics. One can deduce that the lives of ordinary Chinese have no value in this process. The improvement of environmental pollution is a crucial task for the long-term, not just for the Olympics. Yet the tragic thing is that Chinese people live in darkness without sunlight; that counties and municipalities lacking water must still provide water to the "emperor" [Beijing]. It seems that these other counties and municipalities are not considered human. The value of human life there is downgraded. It is tragic!