Mao was staying in a picturesque village... in an elegant two-storey villa with a palm tree in the courtyard. He had been taking his ease, consuming plenty of milk (a rarity for the Chinese), as well as a kilo of beef stewed into soup every day, with a whole chicken on top. He would describe how fit he was, applying his characteristic yardstick: "I can eat a lot and shit a lot."
- From Mao: The Unknown Story, by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday