China Itinerary or Chinerary, as it were…

Here’s a brief version of our China itinerary. Mike put together a pretty awesome schedule of speakers, site visits, lectures and excursions in Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing.

As I said, I won’t be able to blog from the mainland, so you’ll have to use your imagination until I get back home and can post stories and photos from our 2 weeks in China.

Thanks for joining me on my travels this summer!

SHANGHAI

July 25
-Depart Hong Kong; arrive in Shanghai 4:30pm
-Dinner with Dan Washburn, editor of shanghaiist.com

July 26
-Dinner with Bill Kazer, Managing Editor of Xinhua Finance – financial newswire for China’s markets

July 27
-Breakfast meeting with Chen Weihua, editor of the China daily in Shanghai

CHENGDU

July 28
-Depart Shanghai; arrive in Chengdu 4:50pm

July 29
-Visit Chengdu Panda Base (http://www.panda.org.cn/english/research/1.htm) to play with nine-month old panda cub (and cuddle it, duh)
-Excursion to the city of Dujiangyan, about two hours’ drive from Chengdu, which was badly hit by the May 2008 earthquake. (http://a11news.com/112/dujiangyan-china-earthquake/)
-Visit a hospital in Chengdu to learn about the work of Stand Tall, a Hong Kong charity that helps people who lost their limbs in the earthquake by providing artificial limbs. They have done so for over 1000 quake victims so far. We will get a briefing on their work, meet some of the doctors, physiotherapists and patients.
(http://www.futuregov.net/articles/2009/may/10/make-everyone-stand-tall/)
-Dinner with diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu

BEIJING

July 31
-Depart Chengdu; arrive in Beijing 2:30pm
-Dinner with Melissa Chan, Beijing correspondent for Al Jazeera English who just got back from covering the riots in Xinjiang

Aug 1
-Visit the Great Wall.
-Dinner with Michael Pettis, a professor of finance at Peking University and one of the leading figures in the Beijing music scene. After dinner, he will take us to one of the music bars he runs for a performance of Chinese rock music.

Aug 3
-Meeting with Kaiser Kuo, an expert on new media in China, working as a consultant for Ogilvy and Mather (PR) and a Chinese website called Youku.com. He was also the driving force behind Tang Dynasty, one of China’s pioneering heavy metal rock bands.

Other meetings to be confirmed include:
- Bill Weinstein, Acting Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy.
-Mei Yan, CEO, MTV China.
-Joe Kruzich, Chevron China Representative and former Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Consulate, Shenyang.

Return to Hong Kong from Beijing August 7, return to Los Angeles August 8.