10-Day Public Health & Policy Leadership Camp

Afternoon — Arrival in Beijing
Welcome to Beijing, the capital of China! To make your arrival as smooth as possible, your private guide greets you in the arrivals hall and escorts you to your hotel by private vehicle. Your guide also handles your luggage and assists with the hotel check-in process.

Evening — At Your Leisure
Lunch or dinner will be arranged according to the voucher provided for you; otherwise, you can find some local restaurants nearby or dine at the hotel. The rest of the day is yours to rest and recover from your journey.

Morning — how China organises health care
The seminar opens with the arithmetic that shapes every health system: what proportion of the population is over sixty, what proportion of spending is public, and who pays the difference. China's answers have changed repeatedly. The barefoot doctor programme of the 1960s and 1970s put basic care into villages with minimal training and produced one of the sharpest falls in infant mortality in the developing world. The 2003 SARS outbreak exposed how thin the reporting system had become, and the response rebuilt it. The 2009 reforms pushed insurance cover past ninety per cent of the population, and the Healthy China 2030 blueprint moved the emphasis from treatment towards prevention, tobacco, diet and exercise.

Late morning — the community health centre model
The second block looks at the delivery end: the community health centre, a neighbourhood clinic that handles vaccination, chronic disease follow-up, maternal and child care, and referrals upward into the hospital system. Participants work through a fictional district of 400,000 people with an ageing population, a diabetes prevalence of about twelve per cent, and one hospital two hours away, then argue about where to put the money. The exercise is deliberately under-specified, because real allocations are.

Lunch
A simple set lunch near the seminar venue. Participants are asked to note what the meal contains and what it costs, since diet and price are the two levers most public health programmes actually have.

Afternoon — a working community health centre
After lunch the group visits a community health centre in the city, arranged through our local health partner and confirmed before departure. You see the vaccination room, the chronic disease registry, the traditional medicine clinic that sits alongside the general practice rooms, and the pharmacy where a large share of the medicines dispensed are on the national essential list. Staff explain how patients are queued for a hospital referral and how the centre is paid. Questions are welcomed, and participants usually ask about the same three things: waiting times, out-of-pocket cost, and how a family doctor system works when patients can walk into any hospital.

Evening — plan drafting and dinner
Back at the hotel, teams finish a one-page response plan for the district case and present it in five minutes each, with a hostile question from another team attached to every presentation. Dinner follows. This is the day most participants say changed how they read health news at home.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Beijing.

Morning — Temple of Heaven
Begin your day at the Temple of Heaven, an esteemed complex of religious structures where emperors once prayed for good harvests, epitomizing the connection between Earth and Heaven. Built in the Ming Dynasty and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is also a beloved public park where you can watch local residents practicing their distinctive morning exercises.

Lunch — A Well-Known Local Eatery
For lunch, enjoy a meal at a well-known local eatery featuring authentic regional cuisine. Your guide assists you in selecting dishes that suit your taste.

Afternoon — Tian'anmen Square & the Forbidden City
Stroll through Tian'anmen Square, one of the world's largest public squares, then delve into the enigmatic Forbidden City, the world's largest imperial palace. Home to 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, it contains hundreds of halls and courtyards; venturing off the main axis uncovers fascinating tales of notable figures often overlooked by conventional tours.

Evening — At Your Leisure
The evening is yours to enjoy at your leisure in Beijing.

Morning — Summer Palace
The Summer Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the best-preserved imperial garden in China, originally created in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong as a royal retreat and extensively rebuilt by Empress Dowager Cixi in 1888. Centered on Kunming Lake, which covers about three-quarters of its 290-hectare area, the garden blends natural hills, bridges and pavilions in classic Chinese landscape design. Walk the 728-meter Long Corridor, whose beams are painted with thousands of scenes from Chinese opera and folklore, and admire the lake, the Marble Boat and the lakeside pavilions. Your guide will explain how the garden fuses architecture with nature to create a sense of harmony and tranquility.

Lunch — Vegetarian Restaurant near the Summer Palace (Included)
Enjoy a light, healthy vegetarian lunch at a restaurant near the Summer Palace, included in your tour.

Afternoon — Traditional Tea Ceremony
In the afternoon, visit a traditional tea house in a quiet setting for an authentic Chinese tea ceremony led by a professional tea master. Learn about the major tea families — green, black (hong cha) and oolong — how they are grown and processed, and the correct way to brew and appreciate each one. Sip tea mindfully to the sound of traditional Chinese music, and if you wish, purchase high-quality loose-leaf tea as a souvenir (optional).

Evening (Optional) — Relaxing Massage & Light Dinner
For a complete wellness day, you may visit a nearby traditional Chinese massage parlor for a relaxing treatment to relieve the day's fatigue (optional), followed by a light vegetarian dinner before returning to your hotel. (Evening activities are optional and not included.)

Morning — Summer Palace
Explore the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan), the Qing Dynasty imperial garden built around Kunming Lake. Walk the Long Corridor with its painted ceilings and view the Marble Boat for a taste of royal leisure before leaving Beijing.

Afternoon — High-speed train to Shanghai
After lunch, board a high-speed train to Shanghai. The Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway covers about 1,318 km (819 miles) in roughly 4.5 to 6 hours, one of the fastest and busiest rail lines in the world, offering a front-row view of China's changing landscapes.

Evening — Arrive in Shanghai
Arrive in Shanghai and transfer to your hotel in the city center, convenient for exploring the bustling waterfront and neighborhoods in the days ahead.

Meals
Lunch is on your own (available on the train or before boarding); dinner on your own in Shanghai.

Accommodation
Your hotel in Shanghai.

Morning — Yuyuan Garden
Visit Yuyuan Garden, a classical Chinese garden built in the Ming Dynasty (completed in 1577) in Shanghai's old town. Its pavilions, rockeries, ponds, and carved halls show the art of southern garden design, beside the lively Yuyuan Bazaar.

Midday — Shanghai Museum
Explore the Shanghai Museum, home to over one million artifacts including bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy, and paintings that trace China's 5,000-year history. Its rounded building on People's Square is itself a city landmark.

Evening — The Bund
Stroll The Bund, Shanghai's iconic waterfront along the Huangpu River, where colonial-era buildings from the early 1900s face the futuristic skyline of Pudong. An optional acrobatics show can be arranged.

Meals
Lunch and dinner are included, featuring local Shanghainese cuisine.

Accommodation
Your hotel in Shanghai.

Morning — Team Challenges Begin
Begin a full day of team challenges designed to build collaboration, communication, and creative problem-solving. Activities might include navigating Shanghai's metro system to complete cultural missions in different neighborhoods, negotiating with vendors in local markets to acquire specific items, or working together to decode clues scattered across the city's historic and modern districts.

Afternoon — Challenges Continue
Continue team challenges with activities that leverage Shanghai's unique character — perhaps a design-thinking workshop in a creative district, a scavenger hunt in the French Concession that requires teamwork and cultural knowledge, or a collaborative project in a maker space that reflects Shanghai's innovation ecosystem.

Evening — Dinner on the Bund
Celebrate the day's accomplishments with dinner at a restaurant on the Bund, where views of the Pudong skyline provide a spectacular backdrop for reflecting on team dynamics and the lessons learned through collaborative challenges.

Accommodation
• 4-Star Hotels: Courtyard by Marriott Shanghai Pudong, DoubleTree by Hilton Shanghai, Novotel Shanghai Clover. • 5-Star Hotels: Grand Hyatt Shanghai, Waldorf Astoria Shanghai, The Peninsula Shanghai.

Meals
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are included today.

Morning — Yu Garden
Visit Yu Garden, a classical garden laid out some 400 years ago that represents the pinnacle of Chinese garden design. Beyond its beauty, the garden's layout embodies principles of harmony, balance, and strategic positioning — ideas that have influenced Chinese military strategy, business thinking, and feng shui for centuries.

Afternoon — Strategic Workshop
Participate in a strategic workshop facilitated by a China business consultant who helps you synthesize the insights of your journey into actionable plans for your organization. Reflect on how lessons from imperial governance, Silk Road trade, innovation ecosystems, and financial markets can inform your China strategy.

Evening — Farewell Banquet
Enjoy a farewell banquet at a restaurant specializing in Huaiyang cuisine, one of China's most refined culinary traditions, known for its delicate flavors and artistic presentation. As you toast to new friendships and insights, your guide helps you reflect on the journey and the opportunities it has opened.

Accommodation
• 4-Star Hotels: Courtyard by Marriott Shanghai Pudong, DoubleTree by Hilton Shanghai, Novotel Shanghai Clover. • 5-Star Hotels: Kempinski Hotel Shanghai, Grand Hyatt Shanghai, Shangri-La Shanghai.

Meals
Breakfast, lunch, and farewell dinner.

Morning — the case
The simulation is set in a fictional coastal city of twelve million with a quarter of its population over sixty, a dense older quarter with shared kitchens, and a hospital system that is excellent at the top and uneven at the bottom. A respiratory outbreak begins in two neighbourhoods. Teams are given the same information at the same time and have to decide, in four rounds, what to close, whom to test, where to move supplies and what to tell the public. Round three always adds a piece of information that invalidates a decision made in round two, because that is what actually happens.

Late morning — ageing, and why it dominates
The briefing before the simulation is about demography. Shanghai has one of the oldest populations of any large city in China, and the numbers set the policy problem: a shrinking working-age cohort paying into a system whose heaviest users are growing. The city's answer has been to build care downward - the 15-minute community life circle, day-care centres inside residential compounds, nursing beds attached to community health centres, and a family doctor system in which residents register with a named general practitioner who holds their record and manages their chronic conditions.

Lunch
A set lunch near the simulation room; teams keep their groups and are asked to bring one unresolved question each to the afternoon.

Afternoon — a community clinic and a family doctor
In the afternoon the group visits a community health service centre, arranged through our local health partner and confirmed before departure. You meet a family doctor, look at how a chronic disease register is actually kept and used, see the traditional medicine room and the rehabilitation gym, and hear what the clinic cannot do - which is usually the most instructive part. Participants are encouraged to ask about cost to the patient, about how referrals to tertiary hospitals are prioritised, and about what happened to routine care during the pandemic years.

Evening — presentations and dinner
The programme closes with each team presenting its outbreak response in eight minutes and defending it against two questions from the staff. The judges score on feasibility rather than ambition: a plan that a city of twelve million could actually execute beats a better plan that nobody could. Certificates and written feedback follow over dinner, and the evening ends early for those flying out.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
In Shanghai.

Morning — Departure Transfer
Your guide and driver will pick you up from your hotel and transfer you to Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) for your departure flight home, bringing your journey to a close.