RussSpencer's Blog

It's over.

Georgia's Economic Development Mission to China ends with the establishment of a permanent Business Advisory Center in Beijing, and the promise, the Governor says, of more trade, tourism, and Chinese business investment down the road.

For most of the Georgia Delegation, the journey ended on an emotional high note today in a rural village about 90 miles from Beijing called Tienjin.

First Lady Mary Perdue led the delegation to a school supported by Project Hope, an effort of the Chinese Youth Development Foundation that gets millions of dollars from Coke and its bottlers.

The kids are incredibly cute, and they and their teachers were excited because this was the first international delegation to visit their school.

Their excitement paled, though, when compared to the reaction of the Georgians to the children themselves, to the skits they performed, and to the pointed questions they asked about their ages, occupations, and life in the US.

Mrs Perdue walked a short distance to the home of a family whose children attend the school, where she was treated to homemade dumplings cooked over a bamboo and wood fire, in a two room home where the whole family sleeps in the same long bed. They offered me some straight out of the wok, and they were perfect.

This is the "other" China, a hundred miles and a thousand years from the money chase in booming Beijing and Shanghai. One is tempted to call it the real China -- and many people do -- but I don't know enough to say.

That story will air on Fox 5 News tonight.

So, too, will my exclusive, one on one interview with Governor Perdue about what he accomplished on the trip and what comes next.

Tomorrow morning, we leave our hotel in Beijing at 5AM for a flight back to Shanghai, where our journey comes full circle as we catch Delta's non-stop return flight to Hartsfield Jackson.

If all goes well, it will be a little more than 25 hours door-to-door.

One more reason to root for Delta to get permission for a non-stop to Beijing next year.

Seeing China for myself has been a tremendous learning experience, and I hope you've gotten a little better sense of the economic explosion here through our reporting.

We'll be watching to see whether Georgia's investment in an office here pays off.

Thanks for reading and responding... and for your good wishes.

See you on TV.