酷兔英语


Few hotels would count their blessings after unearthing a bomb shelter, but for the historic Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, the discovery is turning out to be a marketing coup.





Last month, while digging the foundation for a new poolside bar, workers at the 110-year-old French-colonial hotel struck a suspiciously thick layer of concrete. According to Carl Sladen, the Metropole's sales and marketing director, there are mentions in local historic accounts of a Vietnam-era bunker designed to protect guests during air raids, but as owners and staff have changed over the years, nobody knew where it was located or if it even still existed.


概不会有哪家酒店会把挖出防空掩体来当成件大喜事。不过对于历史悠久的河内索菲特传奇大都市酒店(Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi)来说,这个发现却意外地成了营销的好机会。



'We then did some digging of a different sort,' Mr. Sladen says. 'After speaking with various contacts around Hanoi, and others who have been associated with the hotel's history, we concluded that indeed there was something down there. But we had no idea how big it was or what might be inside.'


不久前,这家有着110多年历史、建于法国殖民地时期的老酒店准备在游泳池旁建一个新酒吧。工人们在挖土时碰到厚厚一层看起来颇为奇怪的混凝土层。据酒店的销售和市场营销主管卡尔·斯莱登(Carl Sladen)称,当地的历史资料中记载过一个越战时期用来在空袭时保护酒店客人的掩体。不过随着时间流逝,酒店几易其主,工作人员也早就散去,如今没人知道那个掩体的具体位置,人们甚至不知道掩体的存在。



Hotel managers instructed their engineering team to carefully excavate the site. They bored through 80 centimeters of steel-reinforced concrete, breached the bunker's ceiling and dropped in a camera.


斯莱登说,在那之后我们改变了挖掘的方式,在咨询了河内周围多位相关人士,并询问了一些与酒店历史有关的人员后,我们判断下面确实有东西。不过我们不知道它有多大,也不知道里面有什么。



'There wasn't much inside,' Mr. Sladen says. 'Just a few wine bottles