"I've been working in Alibaba for 13 years. If I don't stop now, I'll lose the chance of doing something new and lose more dreams."

Jack Ma, chairman and chief executive officer of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, explaining the reasons behind his Jan 15 decision to relinquish the Alibaba chief executive post in May but stay on as chairman.

"After five days in Beijing, I'm finally able to see what it is like this morning."

Joe Wong, a Chinese-American stand-up comedian, making a humorous remark on the alarming air-pollution levels in Beijing.

"We import all types of essential medicines from China, and so far we have not detected substandard or counterfeit drugs originating from the country."

Kipkerich Koskei, chief pharmacist at the Ministry of Medical Services in Kenya, saying that reports of counterfeit drugs from China flooding the African markets are untrue. Kenya will continue to source drugs from China, he said. Western media reports on Jan 8 had alleged that China was the main source of counterfeit drugs flowing into Kenya.

(China Daily 01/18/2013 page2)