"Many places still rely on the wind to remove rubbish and the sun to vaporize sewage."

Zhou Shengxian, minister of environmental protection, said on July 9 while delivering a report on environmental protection in Beijing. China's 600,000 rural villages produce more than 9 billion tons of domestic sewage and 280 million tons of domestic rubbish every year, but most of them lack basic environmental protection facilities.

"The opinion of the people is our mirror; the expectation of the people is the direction we strive for."

Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, calling on Party officials to further improve their work methods and establish closer ties with the people during a research visit to Zhejiang province from July 10 to July 12.

"We believe that real people telling real stories can make the content more interesting."

Steve Hansen, co-founder of Phonemica, a website that is dedicated to preserving the richness of different dialects across China. The Phonemica homepage shows a map of China. By clicking on each mark, you will be linked to an audio recording of stories in different dialects. It has some 130 audio items with transcripts, and more than 3,000 users.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/19/2013 page3)