"喝西北风" literally means to breathe the northwest wind. This phrase describes a straitened circumstance where there's nothing to eat but the wind. There are different stories attributed as the origin of this habitual phrase: one story suggests that "喝西北风" advocates the ideal state of a Taoist: living solely by breathing air; another story suggests that in China, the northwest wind is the most frigid wind during winter, breathing this wind while having nothing to eat further exacerbate the pain of hunger and cold.

The Chinese yo-yo is a toy from China consisting of two equally-sized discs connected with a long axle.

China's population is projected to reach 1.4 billion by the end of 2015, when the urban population will become the majority for the first time, officials said.