In a recent trip, I visited Nanjing and Beijing. In Nanjing, I met Dr. Jianxiu Liu and colleagues working on turfgrass breeding and genetic transformation in the Jiangsu Institute of Botany, CAS. I was also able to give a long-due seminar there. In Beijing, I met Dr. Wanjun Zhang, Associate Professor at CAU, working on turfgrass and switchgrass transformation. Dr. Zhang was a postdoc in my lab at NCSU before taking the position. We discussed the progress of his research projects.