Q&A WITH KIM NG - Trip was a chance to learn

Ng, 39, who is Chinese American, had never previously visited China. She spent time with Times reporter Dylan Hernandez at the winter meetings in Nashville this week to share her experience.

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Question: What was the basic idea behind the program?

Answer: The idea of it is to bring together, I believe the cutoff is 40 years old so they bring together people that age together, people who are leaders in their fields, who are established as experts. It's basically to bring Americans and Chinese together to talk about their lives, what affects their lives and to learn about each other's countries in hopes that as we progress in our careers and become more influential, we have a better understanding of each other. When you have better understanding of a culture and a system, it can only lead to better decisions.

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Q: Where did you stay?

A: It was a state government house. It was the place where Mao had stayed. We got to see his big suite.

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Q: What were the days like?

A: In the morning, there were tai chi lessons, if you wanted it. I couldn't wake up. My clock was so abnormal. We had three-hour discussion sessions that started at 9, break for lunch and do something in the afternoon. One day we went dragon-boat racing. Another day, we rode bikes to the Ming tombs. There were these huge, beautiful gardens, lots of statues, a museum of artifacts from the Ming dynasty.

We went to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center [which is jointly administered by Nanjing University and Johns Hopkins University]. We went there for the day, had a few sessions, exchanged ideas. We had the president of Juilliard School in New York speak to us.

Early evening we had the professor of U.S.-China relations speak. We had a cocktail hour with the students there, who were from the U.S. and China. I had my first glass of Chinese wine. It wasn't great, but it was fine. It's so different. The Chinese view a lot of the American wines and French wines to be overly sour. Chinese wines are sweeter.