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When the Chinese pagoda in Kew Gardens was completed in 1762,
1762年，中国宝塔在邱园建成，
it was the second tallest building in England designed by architect William Chambers who made several visits to China.
它是英国第二高的建筑，多次造访中国的建筑师威廉·钱伯斯设计建造。
The tier tower stood nearly 50 meters high with 80 colorful snarling dragons perched on the roofs of its ten storeys.
层塔近50米高，十层楼屋顶栖息着80个嗥叫彩龙。
Polly Putnam, curator of Historic Royal Palaces, says 18th century Londoners were horrified.
英国历史皇家宫殿馆长波莉·帕特南说，十八世纪的伦敦人都吓坏了。
So, westerners had never seen Chinese architecture like this before.
西方人从没有见过这样的中国建筑。
And so, it kind of blew their minds because it was so different to anything Chinese that they'd ever experienced.
因为这和他们所见过的任何中国建筑都是不同的。
While pagodas are traditionally used as places of worship,
宝塔在传统上被用作礼拜的场所。
the Georgian Royal Family used the structure to entertain visitors and share views of London.
格鲁吉亚皇室用它来款待参观者，一同分享伦敦风景。
But about 20 years after its completion, the pagoda's wooden dragons disappeared. No one is sure of the true explanation.
但大约20年后，宝塔上的木龙消失了，无法确定真正原因。
What I think happened was actually, they were 20 years old, Britain was in a mini ice age at the time,
我认为当时宝塔已经建了20年了，当时的英国处在小冰河期，
So, there was an awful lot of frost, there was an awful lot of storms.
有大量的霜冻，可怕的风暴。
There was even a volcano, which exploded, erupted in 1783, covering London in smoke, 20,000 people died.
1783年甚至发生了火山喷发，烟雾笼罩伦敦，两万人死亡。
And so, the year after, I can imagine that the dragons were looking pretty shabby.
所以一年后，我可以想象这些巨龙必定看起来很破旧。
A restoration project began in 2014 to return the pagoda to its former glory.
一项修复工程于2014年开始，目的是让这座宝塔恢复往日的辉煌。
Experts consulted original design drawings, paintings and a book written by Chambers.
专家们咨询了原始设计图纸，绘画和钱伯斯所写的一本书。
To ensure the new dragons wouldn't succumb to the elements, they were 3D-printed.
确保新龙不被这些因素所困，用的是3D打印。
South Carolina-based 3D System used a process called precision laser sintering to produce 72 new dragons.
南卡州的3D系统使用了一种叫做精密激光烧结的方法来制造72条龙。
The eight serpent-like creatures on the lowest roof were hand carved and painted by master craftsmen.
最底层屋顶的8个蛇形生物是由大师手绘的。
Each dragon took about 18 hours to print, using a durable nylon material.
每条龙都需要18个小时来打印，使用的是耐用的尼龙材料。
It's a perfect use really because it solves a lot of problems. We've got to make it lightweight, which means hollowing the part.
3D技术是完美的，是因为它解决了很多问题，我们要把它做的很轻，这意味着内部是空心的。
We still need to build internal structures into the dragon, which is very difficult, almost impossible, to do any other way.
但是我们仍然需要在龙里面建立内部结构，这是非常困难的，几乎不可能以任何其他的方式来完成。
3D printing is a very fast way of making very complicated, unique pieces.
3D打印可以快速完成复杂，独特的作品。
There are 18 versions of a dragon on the building. So, we can manage all that and print it very, very efficiently
整个建筑有18个不同版本的巨龙，有效管理，有效打印，
and we can scale up on the printing side as well to make sure it's done to the programme.
加大打印力度，确保修复计划万无一失。
The result is like stepping back to an earlier time in a royal garden that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
成品仿佛回到了早期的皇家园林，这座园林入选了联合国教科文组织世界遗产地。
I'm Faith Lapidus, VOA News.
VOA新闻，法斯·拉皮德斯报道。
