At an After School Matters event, the mayor discussed his impressions - in particular, the high-speed rail service in Shanghai.
Daley hopes foreign investors will finance a similar rail system between O'Hare airport and downtown Chicago.
He said business people seemed interested in the investment, but it's probably going to take a long time.
"It's very complicated. It's not just something that you have to work out the financial terms and agreements and things like that," said Daley. "Of course, we want to design it, build it, operate it, and maintain it, of course, with people working here."
The mayor marveled that it only took seven minutes to get from the airport to downtown Shanghai.
He also was struck by the amount of money being spent on infrastructure.
