In 2006, the Chinese Ministry of Education sent presidents and party secretaries from its top-ranked universities to the University of Michigan (UM) to learn more about the leadership of research universities. Both the ministry and UM worked hard to make the visit productive, and both parties gained from it. A year later, with the support of the Ford Foundation, the author conducted interviews with the Chinese participants to evaluate what they learned from their visit and how they used the knowledge to improve their universities. In the process, she developed new insights about Chinese higher education. She saw how quickly the Chinese absorb and adapt new ideas, and she found that the reforms they chose to adapt--for example, student-centered management--were not exactly what she had anticipated. With a population of 1.3 billion and an annual economic growth rate of almost 10 percent, the People's Republic of China has become the world's second-largest economy. Since the 1980s, Chinese higher education has provided the country with scientific and technological expertise, a path to individual advancement, and an engine to stimulate the market economy. Accordingly, the Chinese government views higher education as the key to the country's future economic growth. Professional development, especially study abroad, is a prime strategy that the Chinese government uses to improve its higher-education system. (Contains 2 tables and 9 resources.)