Slow News Day in China

A little navel gazing by the China News:

Every city has its main color. In Paris, for example, the main color is grayish white and in London, yellowish gray becomes the dominating color of buildings in the city. What is the major color in Beijing, then? Not long ago, an authority in Beijing said that gray is the main color in the capital.

Why did he say so? Because during its 800 years of history as the national capital, gray had always appeared as the most suitable color for Beijing. It conforms to the city's local culture and its climate features.

When one strolls about the city, one can see that most of the buildings in the city are painted in gray. The quadrangles are made with gray bricks and the city wall, the walls surrounding the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace are all painted in gray color. Such gray is not the common "mud gray" color as we often think. It is a color mixed with a bit of blue, making it seem very clean and with an air of solemnity.

The reason that Beijing is gray is pollution. The writer is trying to romanticize dirt, fumes, and exhaust. It is in the air and on the buildings which have never been washed, and there is nothing romantic about it.