New paint color chosen for Saigon Post Office after facelift disaster   The Saigon Central Post Office after December's paint job. Photo: Le Cong Son Ho Chi Minh City officials have agreed on a new shade of yellow for the Saigon Central Post Office, which was repainted last December in a color many slammed as too gaudy. All 14 members of the city's planning and architecture board have voted for the new paint for the 123-year-old building, one of the top tourist destinations in the city downtown. The color was chosen from eight different shades of yellow submitted by the post office. These shades have being tested over the past few weeks on parts of the three-story building, designed and built by the famous architect Gustave Eiffel, the namesake creator of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. According to Dang Thi Nga, the post office director, the selected color is lighter than the one used in repainting the building last December, the first such effort since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. “The new color is being repainted on fences. The whole building is expected to have the new color after the Lunar New Year,” she said. The post office will not have to pay extra money for repainting besides the initial cost of VND5 billion (US$234,250) as the correction job is sponsored by a paint company and the contractor. Saigon Post Office, constructed between 1886 and 1891, became a hot spot for tourists as part of the city's colonial core, which includes the Notre Dame Cathedral, the former Cercle des Officiers on Le Duan Street and several other French buildings on Dong Khoi and Ly Tu Trong. By Cong Son, Thanh Nien News