Part of a 900-metre high cliff in western China was painted green by a villager seeking to improve the environment’s feng shui, news reports said today.

The resident of Gangshui town had painted some 2,000 square metres of the cliff bright green in order to resolve the problem of bad feng shui, China Radio International reported.

Feng shui is a traditional Chinese system governing the design and orienting of buildings in an auspicious manner taking into account the flow of energy.

Images showed a team of painters with ropes daubing the colour directly on to the white rock.

The local government said the painting would damage the environment, Xinhua news agency reported.

- dpa