Congratulations to my colleague and friend, Joe DeSimone.

A couple of days ago the Raleigh News and Observer named him their Tar Heel of the Year for 2008.

As the year 2008 comes to an end, I think many of us are glad to be done with it — it has been a year of huge economic challenges, major financial losses, and great frustrations. None of us planned to spend the past several months dealing with these issues. But we have to play the hand we are dealt, and whether we are talking about the world economy, the American financial or health care systems, or UNC Health Care — we simply have to do our best, and work hard every day.

I’ve been back from China for four days — and my sleep and wake patterns are almost adjusted.

Several people have asked me what my “greatest memory” or “most striking impression” of the China trip is. This morning, I answered that question this way — the remarkable speed with which they do things. Their sheer capacity for concerted effort allows them to do things in unbelievable time frames.

On behalf of the entire UNC Medicine family, I want to express our profound sadness on the passing of our dear friend, Dr. Christopher C. Fordham, III. We extend our condolences to Mrs. Fordham and the entire family.

Dr. Fordham was a giant in American medicine and higher education. He led the UNC School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to new heights of excellence, all the while increasing our focus on serving the people of North Carolina — all of them.

On our last full day in China, Will and I took a 50-mile bike ride — and again saw the Great Wall. It was a spectacularly beautiful day — clear, sunny, about 80 degrees. Will was a good sport about it, indulging my biking habit, and we really had fun. We saw a lot of the countryside — farms and small villages.

Over the past two days, we had very good meetings with several institutions –

I visited with Dr. Depei Liu, the president of Peking Union Medical College. He is also president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. In U.S. terms, that would be like his being head of one of our top health science centers, and also director of the NIH! We had very wide-ranging conversations about how we might partner, including the possibility of student and faculty exchanges.

We have just been to the most amazing sporting event I have ever seen (with the exception of the Men’s Basketball National Championship in St. Louis in 2005).

This morning we went to swimming finals. We saw lots of great events, and a number of new world records were set.

The high point, though, was seeing Michael Phelps. He won the gold in the 200 fly, and the U.S. team, of which he was the first leg, won the gold in the 4×200 free. It was wonderful getting to stand and sing the Star Spangled Banner twice!

This morning we met with Professor Min Weifang, the chairman of the University Council of Peking University. Under the Chinese system of university governance, he is the party chairman, and, as such, he is the highest ranking official at PKU. Even the university president reports to him.

Prof. Min has his doctorate from Stanford, and he is an urbane, polished leader. He has been involved with UNC for some time — and he visited Chapel Hill about a year ago. Chancellor Moeser and he met several times.

He talked about PKU and their vision for the future, especially as it relates to international partnerships with other universities.

Today was a fun day — just Olympics.

In the morning we went to beach volleyball and saw several matches.

The best was between the Chinese and Belgian women. The China team won but it was a closely fought game (19-21, 21-18, 15-13).

Yesterday Peter Coclanis, Tom Martineau and I had lunch with Dr. Yan Jiangying (or Jenny Yan, to use her “English name”).

She is a senior official of the State Food and Drug Administration for China. She is a pediatrician and she was a Fogarty Fellow at UNC with Dr. Gail Henderson in 2005.

We went to a very nice restaurant which has recreated the elegant old style of entertaining. It was a very pleasant meal, made all the more so by Dr. Yan’s recounting of her very positive memories of her year in Chapel Hill.