Wu Shangzhong has a successful business distributing Nike products in China.

The Shanghai resident has run the business for 20 years, and even sponsored a high school basketball tournament during which future NBA star Yao Ming got his first major exposure.

Until this week, however, Wu had not been to the United States. A two-week trip with 26 other businesspeople from Shanghai included two days in Richmond, with most of their time here spent at Virginia Commonwealth University's business school hearing from professors and local businesspeople.

Though Shanghai is a commercial and cultural center for China, and one of the world's great business centers, the group came here to learn more about U.S. business practices.

"China is developing, but the U.S. is developed," Wu said though a translator. "We still have a gap, a long way to go to learn how to do business. I want to learn something about how to do business at the idea and strategy level, and learn about the U.S. approach to competition."

The visit stemmed from several marketing strategy and leadership programs conducted in Shanghai and Beijing by Richard Chvala, director of the Center for Corporate and Executive Education at VCU, as well as through contacts with visiting scholars from Beijing and Fudan universities.

"They wanted a concise view of American business practices, looking at some marketing and business strategy models that U.S. and European companies use," Chvala said.

Among the strategies they explored was one concept that Americans tend to take for granted -- product branding. Executives with Barber Martin Advertising in Richmond gave the group an interactive presentation on how some of the world's most recognizable brands -- Coca-Cola and Pepsi, for example -- were created and built into business icons.

There also was some discussion of the threat many Americans perceive from China's booming economy and vast pool of cheap labor, but Van Wood, a professor of international business at VCU, told the group that trade barriers would help neither nation's economy.

"Here in Virginia and Richmond, we don't look upon China as a competitor," he said. "We look upon China as part of our value chain. We want the best and brightest Chinese working for our companies."

The visit also could lead to more trade possibilities, said Jacky Rong, a translator for the group and general manager of a pharmaceutical research company in Shanghai. "These are all successful businesspeople," owners or executives with manufacturing, construction, distribution and technology companies, he said.

"This is a first step," he said. "Maybe there is a chance to do business or for them to invest here later."

Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or jblackwell@timesdispatch.com