"Smog harms people's health, especially the respiratory system. In the past 10 years, Beijing's lung cancer rate increased 60 percent, for which air pollution was an important reason."

Zhong Nanshan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, speaking to China Central Television on January 30

"Downtown Sanya is designed for 300,000 to 400,000 residents, but during the peak tourist season more than 1 million people will flood into the city."

Wang Yong, Mayor of Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, speaking on the sidelines of the provincial legislative body's annual session on January 28. Sanya may be the country's most popular resort during the coming Spring Festival, but the city's infrastructure is not yet ready for booming tourism.

"Our research found that many rich Chinese people assumed philanthropy was a simple task and few have a clear strategy of charitable giving or making sustainable efforts to help solve social problems such as aging. It resulted in overlapping donations in a few fields, including education."

Deng Guosheng, Director of the NGO Research Center at Tsinghua University, speaking to China Daily on February 1. China's wealthy showed an increasing enthusiasm in making big donations to the nonprofit sector including universities in 2012, according to a report

"I don't know what would get lost in cultural translations. I think that inevitably, if you're adapting something from one culture and setting it to another, you're going to lose some subtleties and references."

James Poniewozik, TV critic for Time magazine, responding to the news that the Chinese TV drama The Legend of Zhenhuan, or Empresses in the Palace is to be shown on American channels, on February 1