NANJING: After surveys and debate among residents, the capital of East China's Jiangsu Province is about to choose light green as the city's official colour.

A survey carried out by local media recently showed that more than 60 per cent of Nanjing citizens prefer the shade as their city colour.

"The results will be important references for the research of Nanjing city colour programming," said a Nanjing Programming Bureau official who refused to give his name.

According to the official, the Nanjing Programming Bureau has been researching the matter since the beginning of this year.

Between Tuesday and Friday of last week, the Jiangnan Times newspaper asked "what city colours would you choose" in a survey of more than 1,000 readers. The three most popular were light green, yellow and pink.

The "Nanjing Zero Distance" TV programme then made a further investigation involving the three colours among 13,200 city residents.

The results showed that over 8,271 respondents preferred light green, accounting for 60 per cent; 2,553 chose yellow, accounting for 19 per cent; and 2,804 people chose pink, accounting for 21 per cent.

Many respondents said they chose light green because it represents peace, serenity and environmental protection, which are all characteristics of the city.

Others say the colour represents the mountains and lakes in the city, while others feel that the colour reflects the city's culture.

Although the citizens have chosen these colours, many of them think that there should not be only one or two colours in the city.

"There needs to be all kinds of colours in the city, after all, we are living in a colourful society," said Zhang Hua, a senior university student. "However, these colours should be in harmony."

Experts have also taken part in the discussion. They have chosen five colours for the citizens' reference, namely milk white, graphite, light green, pink and yellow.

Some of them have suggested that the city is divided into several areas with different colours.

For instance, according to Gao Xiangsheng, a professor from the Architecture Institute in Southeast University, the colour should be yellow and red for the area around the Imperial Palace of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and the downtown area should be in different colours.

"It is a very objective investigation, involving the gathering of opinions, suggestions and information from various parties," the official said.

Many researchers, including experts and scholars who still have different opinions, feel it is too early to decide what city colours Nanjing should have.

"Besides, the results may also give references to the real estate agencies and architects in the city," the official added.

At present, most of Nanjing's buildings are red and grey, such as small houses in the famous Confucius Temple and the grand buildings built by the State.

There are only three or four cities which have decided their own colours in the country.

For example, Beijing has chosen grey as its main city colour, which symbolizes a dignified and elegant city atmosphere.

Harbin, capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, recommends cream yellow and white to be the colours of its architecture.

And Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, encourages the use of a number of colour systems, predominantly shades of grey and various other colours as the city colour.

(China Daily 03/19/2004 page3)