是什么让沙县小吃如此受欢迎？

20 years ago, Shaxian County in eastern Fujian Province, was a place where local residents worried about making their livelihoods meet. Now the name has became a trade mark, known across the country. Their secret weapon is -- selling local delicacy.
20年前，东部福建省沙县的地方居民还在担心如何维持生计。现在，这个名字已经成为一个闻名全国的商标。他们的秘密武器是——卖当地风味小吃。

"I heard the dishes are Fujian specialty, so I’ve come to have a taste."
“我听说这些食物是福建特产，所以我过来试试。”

Cheap, convenient and bursting with local colours - Now Shanxian Delicacies restaurants can be found all over the country. And the yearly income of all the restaurants in the country reaches 5 billion yuan. That is 10% of the GDP of Sanming City where Shaxian is located. An official in charge of the development of Shaxian Delicacies say the low price contributes to their popularity.
便宜、方便、富有地方色彩——现今，全国到处都可以找到沙县小吃馆。在中国的所有沙县餐馆的年收入达到50亿元。这占了沙县所在的三明市的GDP的10%。一位负责沙县小吃业发展的官员表示，低价是它们受欢迎的原因。

Zheng Xingjing, director of Fujian Shaxian Delicacies Development Office, said, "Our target is to let the customers eat full and well with less than 5 yuan."
沙县小吃业发展领导小组办公室主任郑兴景称：“我们的目标是让客人花不到5元就能吃得饱，吃得好。”

They may be cheap, but what really helps their growth is support from the government. In the early 1990s, Shaxian Country government encouraged local officials to run delicacy businesses. The aim was to solve unemployment problems and boost the local economy.
它们可能是便宜的，但是真正帮助它们发展的是政府的支持。上个世纪90年代初，沙县政府鼓励地方官员经营小吃生意。目标是解决失业问题，刺激地方经济。

In 1998, more than 3 thousand Shaxian Delicacies restaurants were running in Fujian Province. But it was not as effective at bringing about economic recovery as hoped.
1998年，在福建省经营的沙县小吃馆有3000多家。但是它并没有像期望的那样有效复苏经济。

Deng Desen, shop owner of Shaxian Delicacies, said, "There were a few Shaxian Delicacies in Fuzhou at the beginning, but after several years, more and more restaurants opened here. Customers were scattered and getting fewer."
沙县小吃的店主Deng Desen表示：“刚开始，福建有一些沙县小吃馆，但是几年之后，这里开的小吃馆越来越多。客人散布，客源变得更少。”

Mr. Deng was among the first group of people to run Shaxian Delicacies in the early 90s. If the restaurants were fish, then there were too many fish in one pool. And they were facing one problem: to move or to shut down. Mr. Deng chose to move.
邓先生是上世纪90年代经营沙县小吃第一批人中的一个。如果小吃馆是鱼，那么一个池里有太多鱼了。他们面临一个难题是，转移或停业。邓先生选择了转移。

Deng Desen, shop owner of Shaxian Delicacies, said, "My brother opened a shop in Shanghai, but only few customers knew what we were selling in our shops."
沙县小吃店主Deng Desen称：“我的兄弟在上海开了一间店，但是只有少数客人知道我们店里卖的是什么。”

Shaxian Delicacies didn’t hit Shanghai people’s spot. Shaxian government decided to step up the government-run business. Since 1997, Shaxian County has held a "local delicacies culture festival" yearly, and introduced its local dishes elsewhere, including Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Changsha, and Wuxi. In 2010, they brought it to Taiwan and to Macao this year.
沙县小吃并不合上海人民的意。沙县政府决定提升政府经营业务。从1997年开始，沙县每年都举办“地方美食文化节”，将其地方小吃介绍给其它地方，其中包括北京、西安、长沙和武汉。2010年，他们将它带到台湾，今年，带到了澳门。

Meanwhile, restaurant owners are busy creating new dishes to cater to local people’s taste. Mr. Zhou has about 40 Shaxian Delicacies restaurants in Hangzhou, captial of east China's Zhejiang province.
同时，餐馆主人正忙着创造新的菜式来满足当地人的口味。周先生在杭中国东部浙江省省会杭州大约有40间沙县小吃馆。

Zhou Licheng, chief of Shaxian County Delicacies Chain in Hangzhou, said, "We add new dishes like sirloin rice, chicken rice and change some flavor so that Hangzhou people will like it more. "
杭州沙县小吃连锁店总负责人Zhou Licheng表示：“我们增加了新的菜式，像牛里脊肉饭、鸡肉饭，还改变一些风味来让杭州人更加喜欢。”

Zhou Licheng started a managing company last year to run his restaurant. He plans to organize them as a chain. To make the Shaxian Delicacies a national name is also the goal of Shaxian County government. To achieve this, the Association of Shaxian Delicacies unified the trademark of more than 4 thousand restaurants in the country and set offices in 25 cities to organize and manage the business.
Zhou Licheng去年开办一间管理公司来经营他的餐馆。他打算将它们建成连锁店。使沙县小吃闻名全国也是沙县政府的目标。为了实现这个目标，沙县小吃行业协会统一了全国4000多家餐馆的商标，在25个城市成立办公室来组织、管理本行业。

A large amount of human resources were also put into the businesses. Figures show that nearly 50 thousand residents left home to run Shaxian Delicacies restaurants. That amounts to 55% of local labour resources. Shaxian County government is determined to keep its local delicacies alive in the public eye.
大量的人力资源投入到这个行业中。数据显示，近5万名居民离开家去经营沙县小吃馆。这占了当地劳动力资源的55%。沙县政府决心使其地方风味小吃在公众眼皮底下继续存活下去。