"It's the last gift God has given me, making me feel as if I'm back in my prime time."

- Chen Ning Yang, the 82-year-old Nobel prize-awarded physicist talking about his 28-year-old fiancee, Weng Fan, who is studying for her Master's degree at a college in South China's Guangdong Province.

"I don't want democracy now. I just want my house and stores back."

- An elderly Iraqi who owned four stores before the recent Iraq war and who has now lost everything - even his clothes were borrowed.

"Walmart is like a wolf in the retail sector, but we deliberately invited that 'wolf' into China to bring competitions into the industry."

- Long Yongtu, secretary general of the Boao Forum for Asia. December 11 was the day set for China to totally open its retail industry by the terms of its admission to the World Trade Organization.

"The average size of an apartment is 120 square metres. Kitchen is at least 6 square metres, toilet is about 4 square metres and the main bedroom should be no less than 12 square metres - that's the space a 'xiao kang' (fairly well-off) family should have by then."

- China's Ministry of Construction, for the first time publicly stating its goals for housing quality in the country by 2020.

"You consider genetically modified food safe. But how can you draw the conclusion that it's safe for human beings to eat it for 50 years, after just testing it on rats for three months."

- An official of the Green Peace organization said, urging public caution about genetically modified food.

"The Yangtze River seems to be at the early stage of cancer. If we don't treat it well now, the cancer will soon develop to an advanced stage."

- Zhang Qi, forerunner of the "Protect the 10,000-metre-long Yangtze River" activity, commenting on the polluted river.

"The bigger the brand is, the more painful and pale you should be in front of the camera. Big smiles are only for cheap brands."

- A rule that has been popularized among female models.

"The reason why medicine prices are still so high is that the government has taken no effective measures to lower them."

- He Bingxian, an elderly doctor and representative of the National People's Congress, he has appealed for cheaper medicines to be available to citizens for many years, but without success.

(Star News)