"Our fathers told us that if the seawater retreats fast, it will reappear in the same quantity."

- A village head in southern Thailand. All the 181 people in the village escaped to a temple located on top of a mountain before the tsunami struck on December 26 last year, guided by a saying that has been proved its value over generations.

"Our president tries to clean up Russia, but I managed to clean up the Kremlin."

- A sanitation worker who had worked in the Kremlin for 60 years thought her job was similar to the president's.

"I think it will be an effective way to keep members of parliament alert and responsible, which will also make discussions in parliament more significant."

-Speaker of the Indian Parliament's lower house. In order to prevent its members from sleeping during meetings and to improve efficiency, the Indian Parliament has decided to broadcast the meeting live, so citizens can monitor their representatives.

"Some people loved to write to me as 'To Aisin-gioro Qi Gong,' and I did not take it seriously. But more and more people write to me like that and I decided to send the letters back, saying 'no such a person here'."

-Famous calligrapher Qi Gong expressing unwillingness to show off his surname, Aisin-gioro, the name of the royal family of China's last imperial dynasty, Qing (1644-1911).

"We just survived with 2G, but we will start to capture market share when we come to 3G."

-A Chinese supplier of 3G (third generation) telecommunications equipment. It was not until the 1990s that China began to domestically manufacture 2G equipment. Domestic suppliers struggled for market share against their foreign counterparts. But this supplier thought things would be different for the 3G market.

"In such a small room, you can see all the aspects of life. Some are crying, some are smiling and the others are too sad to say a word."

-A person working in a DNA-test lab in Shenzhen that specializes in determining paternity. About 65 per cent of those who request the test are from Hong Kong and 30 per cent have concubines.

"Happiness is like the tail of a lion. When the lion is running after its own tail, it can never catch it. But when the lion walks forwards confidently, the tail will always follow it."

- Popular Internet advice on the best approach to happiness.

"It's a little terrible when you look forward into the future, because life becomes shorter and shorter for you."

-Celebrated Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.

"Many of our leaders don't understand the meaning of wetland protection and they only want to address droughts, floods and sand storms. But all those efforts should start with wetland protection."

-Hou Baokun, official of the Beijing Forestry Bureau.