In December 1986 I was invited by Yorkshire Regional Health Authority to visit centres of excellence with regard to mental handicap community provision. I had just been appointed to a consultant psychiatrist post with a special interest in mental handicap. The Authority's suggestion was that I go to several centres around Britain and make one trip to Europe and one trip to North America. I was very favourably impressed by Yorkshire's imaginative style and set to work to plan my tour. I had until 1 April 1987 when my new job started. I learned very quickly that preparing a travel schedule is a frustrating and irritating task. It took more than four weeks of telephone calls, with the aid of detective work by Directory Enquiries, before I had even a rough plan of campaign. I discovered several truths at this time. These were.

During a recent visit to China, which included meetings with psychiatrists in Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Hohot, I noted that many of the political constraints of the Cultural Revolution on psychiatry had been removed. Clearly, Chinese society was still strongly influenced by Marxist doctrine, but there was greater academic and clinical freedom for the reinstated professionals who had previously been considered ‘elitist’. Western textbooks and journals were available, and the very fact that Chinese psychiatrists were able to communicate freely with me was in sharp contrast to the enforced isolation of the previous decade.

An international workshop on Epidemiology of Mental and Neurological Disorders of the Elderly was held in the Medical University of Beijing in the People's Republic of China from 16–20 November 1987. The workshop was organised jointly by the Beijing Institute of Mental Health and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in the Neurosciences, Milan, Italy.