Describing ugly things in a nice way

How do you describe ugly things? It's not socially acceptable to say outright that someone is ugly, although this would save a lot of sweat, y'know, if we all just called things as we saw them.

At any rate, it's common knowledge that, in English, when a girl isn't pretty, we refer to her has having 'a great personality'. In Chinese, it's a little different but all in the same vein, really:

1) moderately beautiful women are said to be "cute"

2) plain looking women are said to be "very patriotic"

3) ugly women are said to "obey the rules" very well

4) extremely ugly women are said to have "beautiful handwriting"

Haha, is that clear enough? It seems so, but what do you do if you are describing other things?

I'm often asked if I like living in Nanjing. This city, although has some fun parts, would never be considered Party Time Fun Zone of China. So how do we get around saying things like: "This place stinks"?


I usually say that it has a LOT of history. (Nanjing was the capitol of China for a few dynasties there, and it has a city wall that is so old it needs to be restored...I guess I'm not exactly lying.)


Thus:

"Natalie, how do you like living in Nanjing?"
"Well, Nanjing...Nanjing has a long history, I mean....it has a lotta lotta, very long history..."


There, problem solved. Now-- anyone wanna come visit me?! I'm here for 6 more weeks!