August 22, 2009
This morning, we awoke early to catch a 5:00am flight out of Nashville, through Atlanta to Shanghai, China. Karyn, youngest son Bryan (21), brother Tommy, his wife Trish, and his son-in-law Chuck Elcan and I are all traveling to China to explore the Chinese delivery of health care. During my time in the Senate, at the height of the SARS crisis, I led a Senate delegation to China. They were honored we would come during this period, exhibiting the United States’ trust in the Chinese government to handle this unknown crisis.
Today, we have a 14 hour flight to Beijing. Once there, we look forward to meeting the new Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, Jr. as well as the Minister of Health. We will be in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong over the next week. And, I’ll be blogging daily with updates on events and health care in China today. Stay tuned…