Utah legislators told their colleagues Tuesday that they worked long hours and made invaluable business, government and cultural connections during an eight-day trip to China.

Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich and House Majority Leader Dave Clark told other legislative leaders that the trip — criticized by some of their own lawmaker colleagues — was far from a junket. Instead, the 13 legislators' and two staffers' trip was a very valuable expenditure in dollars, time and effort, they said.

"If this was a junket," he doesn't want to go on another one, Dmitrich said. "I'd rather play golf."

Bramble said the lawmakers' days were full, from 7 a.m. until 9 or 10 each night.

But some of their colleagues had lingering doubts.

"I have only one question," said a legislative leader following the meeting. "Why did so many (legislators) have to go?"

The trip cost the state $36,000, with some lawmakers taking their spouses at their own cost.

But the connections made were likely invaluable, said Bramble, Clark and Dmitrich.

The province they visited is China's main coal-mining region, said Dmitrich. So far this year, around 1,800 miners, many of them using fly-by-night mining techniques, have been killed on the job.

The Chinese "were very interested" in Utah's coal-mining methods and methane-gas detection equipment, he said.

The entourage did visit the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, said Bramble, R-Provo. "We spent 45 minutes at the Forbidden City, not even enough time to walk down the main corridor. We spent (90 minutes) on the Great Wall."

Ninety percent of their time was not sightseeing but meetings with many local Chinese officials, he said.

If someone from Utah wanted to start a business in China, it would be hard going, said Clark, R-Santa Clara. But if you want to go into a partnership with a Chinese company, "China is open for business" from the West, he said.

Foreigners begin business in China first by getting to know the local government official who oversees business opportunities in a certain area, like manufacturing.

"Those connections were made" by the Utah delegation, said Clark.

"There is a very clear understanding," said Clark, "that China is not turning back" to a Communist-run economy. "They call (their style of capitalism) reform. And it will progress, while there are many (Chinese officials) who are trying to point it in the right direction."

"We spend millions of dollars" each year promoting Utah, said Bramble. "This trip cost $36,000," he added, which is little in the state's overall economic-development budget.

---

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com