At a Tuesday night wine-and-cheese reception Downtown, attorney Dennis Unkovic dispensed advice to a group of business and political figures scheduled to leave next week for China, describing what economic practices are like in the world's most populous nation.

"I don't know whether there is a hard business purpose" to the eight-day trip being led by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, said Mr. Unkovic, who works for Meyer Unkovic & Scott. But it is "an important one," he said. "People in this community, not just business people, have to figure out that China is a serious place to do business and a serious competitor to the United States."

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato will take part in the April 13-21 trip, which represents the region's first Far East trade mission in five years. The trip comes amid rising U.S. tensions over China. The Bush administration and others in Washington are concerned about China's rapid military build-up (spending increased 18 percent this year), the recent launching of a Chinese missile into space, and the widening trade imbalance between the two countries (the U.S. deficit reached $233 billion in 2006).

Bowing to Democratic concerns about China's subsidization of exports, the White House recently slapped duties on coated paper imports -- prompting one angry Chinese official to say the decision "brings great harm to the interests and feelings of Chinese business people."

China is now the third-largest export market for Pennsylvania companies, with sales hitting $1.3 billion in 2006, and some Pittsburgh-area companies have scored major business wins there. Perhaps the most prominent example is Monroeville-based Westinghouse Electric Co., winner of a contract to build four nuclear power plants along the eastern coast of China, with the promise of more to come.

The purpose of the trip to Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, an up-and-coming port town in China's industrial northeast, is to help more local companies take advantage of China's explosive rise and capitalize on its status as the world's fastest-growing economy.

A tentative "work-in-progress" itinerary provided to the Post-Gazette shows numerous visits to plants and offices already operated by large Pittsburgh-area companies.

In Beijing, there are stops to see rubber-wheeled airport trains made in West Mifflin by Bombardier Transportation Systems and a plant operated by Dryvit, a maker of wall insulation owned by Kop-Coat Inc., a Downtown-based company.

In Tianjin, there are trips scheduled to a Calgon Carbon plant, a Kennametal factory built last year for $31 million inside a special economic development zone, and a facility used by PPG Industries to produce coatings for customers in China.

In Shanghai, the group expects to see plants operated by Oakdale-based gas monitoring firm Industrial Scientific and Cleveland-based Eaton Corp., which keeps a major operation in Moon.

In between are meetings with Pennsylvania's Beijing representative, the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service in Beijing, and the Beijing bureau chief of The Economist magazine. There also will be a ride on a 300-miles-per-hour bullet train in Shanghai, a trip to see The Great Wall outside Beijing, along with receptions hosted by law firm K&L Gates, Westinghouse and Eaton and hospitality at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Beijing and the JW Marriott Hotel in Shanghai, a towering, glittering structure housed in a development called "Tomorrow Square."

Some of the trip participants, according to a list provided to the Post-Gazette, include business owners Jonathan Hall of Hall Industries, Georgia Berner of New Castle-based Berner International, and Fred Gurney of Maglev Pennsylvania. Mr. Onorato will be there, along with his economic development director, Dennis Davin. Many economic development officials will also make the trip, from Doris Carson Williams of the African American Chamber of Commerce to Sally Haas, head of the Greater Pittsburgh Airport Chamber of Commerce, three people from the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, and Michael Langley, head of the Allegheny Conference, the region's best-known business booster group.

The Allegheny Conference could not be reached yesterday for comment.

Some executives with a lot of experience in China, such as John Tedeschi, senior vice president of medical products maker Medrad, will join the group for a few days to provide guidance, a possible sign that big Pittsburgh companies that already are there want to help small- to medium-size companies break into a market of 1.3 billion people.

"I think this is going to be a good trip," Mr. Unkovic said. "In Pittsburgh, sometimes we are a little behind the curve in appreciating the world. I think this is very important from that standpoint."