The President, Mrs McAleese, has praised her security staff for their quick reaction when a ceiling partially collapsed in a building where she was carrying out a function in Shenyang, north-eastern China on Saturday.
Mrs McAleese was unhurt in the incident which occurred as she was leaving the auditorium of a modern 21st-century building in the industrial city.
The President was attending the signing of an agreement on the Shenyang Glen Dimplex factory when the scare occurred.
The first indication that something was wrong came when loud banging was heard in the atrium outside the auditorium where Mrs McAleese was speaking.
The crashing got worse as sparks flashed on the top gallery and steel panels flew around and banged in the wind.
Startled local officials were confused and appalled as Mrs McAleese, Dr Martin McAleese and their party emerged and descended the stairs amid dust and falling plaster.
The President's security staff, Det Supt Brendan Cloonan and Det Gardaí Bill Mugan and Katrina Mullally rushed to her side. As the noise intensified, the President clutched the arm of her husband and, amid mounting confusion, she was escorted to her car.
Yesterday, Mrs McAleese's spokeswoman said her security people reacted in such a professional way she hardly noticed she was being led to the door.
Shenyang, which currently has 2,000 students in Ireland, is a vast industrial city of eight million people in north-east China.
It has long been a byword for corruption in China - considered probably the country's biggest problem.
Three judges were executed last year and a former mayor and his family were indicted for having huge hidden bank accounts and for selling faulty construction materials.
The President witnessed the signing of several Sino-Irish contracts in the city, which currently has 2,000 students in Ireland - between Glen Dimplex, Trinity College Dublin and Sea Rich International College, Dalian, and SilkSoft/Neusoft.
She was conferred with an honorary doctorate by the Harbin Institute of Technology which has links with the Dublin Institute of Technology.
Mrs McAleese flew to Shanghai on Saturday night and today begins her official programme in the fastest-growing city in the world.
She went shopping in the silk area for fabrics for her new holiday home in Roscommon, went to Mass which was specially arranged in the bridal room of the Garden Hotel in the evening and, despite the cold and windy weather, took a short boat trip on the waterfront last night.