Dry clothes in the open, it's green

Today, we are so dependant on electric appliances that drying our washed clothes in the sun is probably the greenest thing we do.

The traditional practice of hanging our clothes out in the sun to dry makes the 1.3 billion people of this country the largest community of clean solar energy users in the world.

But in Shanghai, China's largest metropolis, drying your clothes in the open is deemed archaic. Officials here are obsessed with an image of modernity - the glitzy skyline, the Maglev. Of course, clothes hung in your balcony, or in your neighborhood garden is no modern invention.