Quotable

"I picked up bottles and cigarette butts more than 1,000 times last year."

Shan Jixiang, curator of the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, talks about the need to improve public awareness of protecting relics, and stopping tourists from littering. The museum has been under pressure to protect relics and ensure visitors' safety. About 153.4 million visits were made to the palace last year.

"Many Chinese students who study in the United States have better academic performances than their American classmates, but their achievements in scientific research are much less than the latter, who are more active, creative and have better hands-on capability."

Chen-Ning Franklin Yang, the Chinese-American Nobel laureate, in comparing students from China and the US, and explaining why China's scientific research is lagging behind. Many experts are calling for education reforms in China.

"The book of 'China' has 1.3 billion pages. A foreigner can only know several Chinese people and read these several pages. But he might think this is how all Chinese people are. So each Chinese should write his own page better."

Zhao Qizheng, former director of the foreign affairs committee of the top political advisory body of China, who says that every citizen's behavior is important to build the country's image. He called on all Chinese to improve their behavior to show a better China to the world.

(China Daily 03/15/2013 page2)