Blogs from Chengdu, Sichuan, China, Asia

Dear Blog Readers, The people have spoken and both readers have commented on the lack of toilet thus far. I was going to save it for the the stomach issues faced in Guilin (spoiler alert) but I'll comment on thoughts so far on the bog front. In general, very impressive facilities - numerously scattered about the towns, especially in Beijing, where the houses in the hutongs rarely have their own toilet so the public ones are used. Often clean and we must have experienced some shockers as sometimes it was the locals that were disgusted with the facilities rather than ourselves! You must bring toilet paper - it's a luxury if there is some provided (often at the entrance rather than in the cubicle. Talking of cubicles, it wasn't uncommon for there not to be door, ... read more

Chengdu, Sichuan, China (May 26, 2019) Sunday morning we had a planning meeting in the hotel’s tea house with one of the SPPH hospital's leaders. The purpose of the meeting was to give him feedback on the two buildings we'd seen and come up with an action plan for moving forward. He expressed there was strong support and that the opportunity to advance it was now. We debated the pros and cons of both locations and decided that the northwest location was likely the best to get started quickly and could always be moved later if the patient flow was a challenge. I pitched a high-level business plan as a starting point, refreshing one that we’d presented five years ago and there was consensus that the approach was still solid and we should move ahead with ... read more

Chengdu, China (May 22, 2019) Each year we come over, there is a major regional ophthalmology conference where now about 200 ophthalmologists from Sichuan attend. It has grown substantially from the first years, and the venues have become increasingly impressive. This year it was held at Sichuan University campus, where they have a five star hotel and an amazing conference center. Was blown away with the size of the screen for presentation - just shy of Texas Stadium's! It must have been 40 ft high. Some leading ophthalmologists and researchers from other parts of China participated in the first day and the two talks preceding mine were a perfect set up for my topic on artificial intelligence in ophthalmology. Our hosts arranged a speaker's lunch at an exquisite restaurant inside the hotel where a charming hostess ... read more

Chengdu, China (May 17, 2019) After a reasonably restful night I got up at sunrise to go for a walk and explore a park near the hotel. The Huanhuaxi Park has beautiful flower, lush vegetation, a river and large pond with plenty of egrets and ducks. A nice peaceful place where quite a few people came out for walks, runs and tai chi exercising. The morning temperatures are in the mid 60's with some humidity as it rained last night, but quite comfortable even working up a sweat. Its quick packing, another adventurous breakfast and off to the airport to meet our colleagues from Kaiser and the Chinese ophthalmologists and we'll fly south to Xichang. More from there!... read more

Chengdu, China (May 16, 2019) Hainan Dreamliner flight 7966 couldn’t have gone any smoother. Boarding on time, leaving JFK on time and getting to our destination about an hour earlier than projected - a 14 for flight. My original seat wasn’t working and wouldn’t recline so they promptly re-seated me. I was able to sleep about 7 hours. Sat next to an interesting man - the former head of R&D for Regeneron (maker of Eyelea - a blockbuster drug in ophthalmology). He’s young, but retired now and mostly travels for enjoyment. It is early morning here and trying to get checked into the Tien Chen Lou hotel - you all know the fire drill. I think 5 am is before check-in time! One of the residents (Vincent) is working the phones... read more