Black and white, the two extremes on the spectrum, are deemed the ultimate abstraction of colors. Any color may approach either of the two extremes on the rise or fall in brightness. Black and white are opposites in unity, reaching the ultimatic destination from different routes, which happens to comform to the world outlook of the ancient Chinese.

The Chinese knew colors early.But Lao Zi (circa 571-471 BC), the founder of Taoism, however, says:"The five colors blind people." The sage adds:"Humans follow the Earth, the Earth follows the Heaven, the Heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows Nature." What he intends to say is that human beings should comply with the Earth and the Heaven and be in harmony with Nature. Nature divides dark night from bright daytime. Therefore only the two colors of black and white are the natural colors of the Earth and Heaven which soothe the eye and rectify the mind.

Perhaps it is precisely because of that thinking that the two colors of black and white make their frequent presence in the traditional Chinese culture, such as the Chinese calligraphy, traditional Chinese houses,etc. One artist once said:"The combination of the ink brush, black ink and paper, the three elements of traditional Chinese painting, has produced a perfect typical system of black and white. This system has been a unique and great contribution which the Chinese nation has made to the world art."

The forests in the mountains in Northern China in Winter are just like a natural black and white water-ink painting.

The black-and-white, charmingly naive giant panda is a rare animal in China. It is called by the Chinese as "national treasure".

Giant panda is the ancient extinct life as dinosaur. More than 3 million years ago, their footprints reached most places in southern and central parts of China as well as Myanmar and Vietnam. Due the strong geological and weather changes, other animal species of the time went distinct early and late. Giant panda was the only survivor and thus became a precious "living fossil".

Currently, the number of giant panda living in the wild worldwide is a little more than 1500. They live in the valleys of high mountains in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu in China. China has now set up 59 giant panda natural reserves to effectively protect the wild giant panda species.