China Plastic Surgery Conference

I recently returned from China for about the 5th time. I was invited to one of the largest Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery Conferences in China to give a lecture as a “professor” . This year it was held in Hangzhou which is about an hour or so from Shanghai.

I was with the Korean Cosmetic  Surgery Society as my “gang” who I have been with for a number of years. There were  about 40 Korean Cosmetic Surgeons going and I was the one American with that group. I am used to their routine . One secret as not to be bored at a plastic or cosmetic surgery meeting is to hang out with the Koreans. They know everything about every place and all the cool things to do, food , good entertainment etc. Hanging out with American Plastic Surgeons is as about as much fun as getting your tooth pulled. Instead  I enjoy the food and  the socializing Korean Style. Of course I also was with the Chinese surgeons but my core group has been the Koreans. There were only two Americans there my self and Bob Peterson of Athena Clinics shown below.

Dr Peterson -Dr Sun -ME

The First World Hotel

First we arrived in Korea and stayed a very nice Hotel overnight. Rested and the next day left for Hangzhou. I was greeted by a famous Chinese television personality at the airport and she escorted us to the Hotel. This event was held at a definitely strange place called the “First World Hotel”  funny name admittedly , but it was an extremely extravagant place and like most things in China –HUGE.

It was decorated in Thailand Decor which only added to the weirdness with elephants. oversize chairs and yet put together in a very odd fashion. Yet it was facility which could hold that many people. So overall it was very nice. The staff was pleasant and food was marginal for my taste. The buffet was rather bland.

Actually it was rather nice place for this type of event considering the size needed for so many doctors and various business interest. Hangzhou I did not get much a feel for as I spend 99% of my time in the hotel but did get a a few times. Its a large city (what city in China is not) of about 3 million people. Seemed not too modern but not too old either seemed to have some colonial architecture remaining with a lot of tall medium size buildings.

One of my colleagues and I took a trip to look for some good food and we found this large place with many floors of rooms much like a multistory hotel. You enter and are greeted where they take you to an ordering room with many types of seafood in water tanks or beef, pork and vegetables you pick from. They will cook it and bring you to a private dining room. There they have your own private waitress and two tables. One table is just for tea with all the tea set and water heater for tea and the other is typical high end Chinese dining table with the rotating center to share food. All the while the waitress stands by and you receive the food you picked out downstairs cooked as you requested. More later on this.

The plastic surgery conference

Well there were two days of lectures on many topics ranging from cosmetic procedures to reconstructive procedures and research. Mostly from Asia but three of us were from the west. One fellow from Australia and two from America. Some were also from Japan and Korea as well.

There were so many lectures some were quite good,  such as Dr Wu Taiwan above who describes his endoscopic face life technique. So this conference was great learning for all. Additionally I went to Shanghai,  as consultant and will be making arrangements to work there as a Plastic Surgeon several times a year. I will cover that more in my next installment onthis  China Trip.

This trip was better than expected and I made a lot new friends which is the main reason aside from education I like these conferences. I really like China.

Doctor808