This is the case of Zhou Xunshu, a 35-year-old pro golfer Washburn befriended during his first China Tour assignment, who grew up in a mountain village in the country's impoverished southwest.
"If golf were part of the Summer Games, it would make a huge difference for its growth here, " said the Shanghai-based American freelance journalist, who has been covering the sport's nascent China Tour for ESPN.
High-end stores such as Tiffany, a world-renowned jeweller, and luxury watch retailer Tourneau are catering to Chinese tourists with Mandarin-speaking sales staff, Chinese size charts and visits by sales reps to China to update tour operators on their US retail offerings.
Stephen Roach, the chief economist of Morgan Stanley, an American investment bank, recently took 15 fund managers on a tour of China.
Meanwhile, on the WTA Tour, China's Li Na reached the quarterfinals of the Stuttgart tournament with a straight sets win in her first match of the clay court season.
World No. 1 Tigers Woods finished tied for sixth after a disappointing 72 in the European Tour event in China, while world No. 4 Paul Casey pulled out after only two holes of his final round due to a recurrence of his rib problem.
Yu Chia-yi and her two siblings lost their mother, who was travelling with neighbours on a group tour bound for northern China.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday wrapped up a four-day tour of Japan, China and South Korea during which he lobbied Asian leaders to support a multi-lateral approach to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
The travel ban has also hurt tour firms in Nepal and in China's Sichuan province.
Mr Cook promptly went on a highly publicised tour of a Foxconn factory in China.
The same day it was announced that Zhu would make an ASEAN tour starting Nov. 22 and represent China at the ASEAN-East Asian informal summit in Manila.
I--the other guys are a little upset with me, but I cut the tour short because I'm going to China on September 2nd to adopt a child.
During the tour, Mr. Cook said he expected China to eventually become Apple's largest market and that the company would open more retail stores in the country.
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The Reds plan to visit China, Malaysia and Korea during a summer pre-season tour of the Far East.
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Manchester United recently completed a 23, 000-mile tour that shuttled the team from South Africa to China to Scandinavia over a few weeks.
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Guan Tianlang had to sweat it out, but the 14-year-old from China became the youngest to ever make a cut in a PGA Tour event.
Park has still travelled with the United squad for their tour, which takes in Japan, Korea, Macau and China.
North Korea will be one of the main issues to be discussed during the tour -- which also will take the president to Japan, China, and Singapore.
It will be Wiggins' first time in a GB vest on the track since his heroic efforts in China in November 2008 with the 29-year-old Londoner, fourth in the Tour de France in 2009, also a possibility for the track World Championships in the Netherlands which run from 23 to 27 March.
The China division of auditing and consulting company Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. last September offered a "virtual office tour" on its career page on Sina Corp.
The qualification process has already seen the exit of 1991 world champion John Parrott, whose loss to China's Anda Zhang means he will drop out of the top 64, and a place on the main tour, next season.
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