James Kynge

I'm actually going to Hainan next month.

I think it's visa-free, so you can go in there.

Well, it certainly is for UK people.

You can go in there without getting a visa.

But the other thing is, just to add a note of caution, because my own experience of Chinese hospitals was not that great.

I had a colleague, and we were on a business trip, a Chinese guy, and his lung collapsed suddenly.

while we were on a business trip, and I took him straight to hospital because it was an emergency.

And when we got there, we were told that he could have the standard treatment, which meant that he'd have to wait a couple of days.

That was clearly not going to be an option, given the fact that he was gasping for breath.

Or he could have the express treatment, but that cost 10 times the amount.

And it seemed to me clearly that there was corruption going on there, that they knew that we were in a desperate situation.

They could see that I was from a big foreign company and they wanted the money.

And of course, I, of course, paid up because when your colleague is gasping for breath with a collapsed lung, you don't have an option.

So I would just add that in there.

Yeah.

You know, Chinese hospitals are not paragons, put it that way.

It was in Beijing, actually.

Oh, it would have been about 10 years ago now, so quite a while.

So maybe things have changed somewhat, but I can't really believe that all practices like that will have changed.

I spent a big chunk of this afternoon just being absolutely amazed by this technology.