I see you studied computer science at least a little. I would start with a few of the programming guides on developer.apple.com and check out the sample code from apple [1] and pick up a copy of "Programming in Objective-C 3rd edition" [2] If you are a visual learner and enjoy lectures (Sometimes annoying and slow for experienced programmers) check out the stanford courses on iTunes. [3]

I would strongly recommend downloading all the videos as well as Xcode 4.2 before you leave for China. The files are quite large and I hear it's a long plane ride. Sign up for the iOS developer program if you have not already - you can't build to your device otherwise. [4]

Feel free to shoot me an email (contact in profile) if you get stuck on something - I might be able to point you in the right direction.

Finally, learning to program iOS apps may not be your best use of time on a trip to China. Even if you are able to go often catching up with what is going on generally and what people are doing/using in the mobile space is probably a better use of your time while there. I know I would not be writing code if was able to take that trip and perhaps even speak the language.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Objective-C-3rd-Developers... (Maybe the kindle edition for reading on your laptop/iPad)

[2] http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/navigation/#section=R...

[3] http://itunes.stanford.edu

[4] http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Xcode/...