Hearsay has it that the dwelling was a birthday gift from Chiang Kai-shek to his wife, Song Meiling, hence the name. Indeed, there is much to support the claim. With 34 white marble railings, 34 lampposts and Chiang’s proposal to build the dwelling when Song was 34, it is in fact more probably pure coincidence that her birthday was 4 March.
道听途说，这所住宅是蒋介石送给妻子宋美玲的生日礼物，因此得名。 的确，有很多可以支持这一说法。 有34个白色大理石栏杆，34个灯柱，以及蒋介石在宋34岁时建造住宅的建议，事实上，她的生日是3月4日，这更可能是纯粹的巧合。
Yet for Nanjing’s more imaginative romantics, the informal moniker for the Official Residence of the Chairman of the National Government has persisted, not least spurred on by the so-called pearl necklace of trees that adorns the building. With the dwelling as the pendant, its gatehouse the ball, the circular road network the chain and the sycamore trees overhead as its links, this was a necklace like no other anywhere on Earth. An appointment with the Chairman would have been most daunting.
然而，对于南京更有想象力的浪漫主义者来说，国民政府主席官邸的非正式绰号一直存在，尤其是装饰着大楼的所谓珍珠树项链的刺激。 住宅是吊坠，它的门房是球，环形道路网是链条，头顶上的梧桐树是其链接，这是一条地球上任何地方都无法比的项链。 与主席的预约是最令人生畏的。
Again though, and with the trees not planted until several years after the roads were built, nothing corroborates Chiang as having been that romantic, while the idea of such lavish gifts to his wife only took root among the people over a decade later.
然而，再说一遍，树木直到道路建成几年后才种植，没有什么能证实蒋介石如此浪漫，而给妻子这种奢侈礼物的想法直到十多年后才在人们中扎根。
Chiang formally proposed the dwelling in 1930 but construction was only just underway by winter of the following year. Other delays were to follow, some the result of going over budget.
Chiang在1930年正式提出了住宅，但到次年冬天才刚刚开始施工。 随后还有其他延误，有些是超出预算造成的。
Originally set to cost 261,410 silver dollars, the budget spiralled to total 360,000. The project came in for so much criticism that construction was suspended for a time and was not completed until 1934.
最初定为261,410银元，但预算总额飙升至36万美元。 该项目受到了如此多的批评，以至于施工暂停了一段时间，直到1934年才完工。
Today, the official residence of the Chairman of the National Government remains the largest single villa in Nanjing, with an 80,000 square-metre plot and a construction area of some 2,800 square metres.
今天，国家政府主席的官邸仍然是南京最大的单栋别墅，占地8万平方米，建筑面积约2800平方米。
Made of reinforced concrete and in parts appearing as a traditional Chinese palace, the richly ornamented dwelling is topped with a glazed, green-tile Xieshan roof with flying eaves for its corners in the official style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Unique in all of China, an odyssey of over 1,000 phoenixes are carved on the eaves’ glazed tiles.
这座装饰华丽的住宅由钢筋混凝土制成，部分地方看起来像中国传统宫殿，顶部是玻璃、绿瓦片的谢山屋顶，其角落有明清时期的正式风格。 整个中国独一无二的是，在屋檐的釉面瓷砖上雕刻着1000多个凤凰的奥德赛。
Underneath, strip-stone based, rectangular-steel windows are set into modern, pasted-yellow exterior walls, with a stone terrace and railings all around.
在下面，以带状石为基础的矩形钢窗被设置在现代的、粘贴的黄色外墙中，周围有一个石质露台和栏杆。
From an interior design perspective, furniture within was the most exquisite of the time. Of particular note, the very spacious bathroom, and the white porcelain basins and bathtubs within that today may look ordinary. In fact they were each and every one all imported from the UK, making them way beyond the reach of ordinary people.
从室内设计的角度来看，里面的家具是当时最精致的。 特别值得注意的是，非常宽敞的浴室，以及今天内部的白瓷盆和浴缸可能看起来很普通。 事实上，它们都是从英国进口的，这使得它们遥不可及。
But that which we can be sure was a gift to Song is the couple’s black Buick sedan which visitors may still be lucky enough to see today. Given by US President Roosevelt to Song in the 1930s, it carries the license plate number, “军00385” and is the only Buick of the same era left in China today.
但我们可以肯定的是给宋的礼物是这对夫妇的黑色别克轿车，游客今天可能仍然有幸看到它。 美国总统罗斯福在20世纪30年代授予宋，车牌号为“军00385”，是当今中国仅剩的同一时代的别克。
Today, the Official Residence of the Chairman of the National Government is regarded as the greatest architectural achievement from the era of the Republic of China.
今天，国民政府主席官邸被认为是中华民国时代最伟大的建筑成就。