HONG KONG -- For Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose much-vaunted "year of reform" agenda was soundly beaten in a special election less than two weeks ago, a three-city trade mission in the Far East could not have come at a better time.

In his six days here, Schwarzenegger has been mobbed by paparazzi, strolled the red carpet at the Shanghai premiere of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and was quizzed by adoring students at China's most elite university on his vision of the California dream.

Business leaders have gushed about the celebrity governor's ability to open doors in China's expanding global marketplace. Front page glamour shots of Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, have been splashed across local English-language newspapers. And a competing trade mission headed by another Republican governor, Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty, has been all but eclipsed by Schwarzenegger's star wattage.

But political experts agree the governor's road to political redemption runs through California, not China.

It's not yet clear if the trip has helped restore his diminished political capital at home, where his approval ratings have been cut in half and angry Democrat-leaning interest groups have vowed to defeat him when he runs for re-election next year.

"It's not all behind him. He's still going to have to deal with the failure of the election," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the nonpartisan Field Poll. "But the media attention from the trip has been extremely positive. It puts the governor back in a favorable light."

As he prepares to return to California, Schwarzenegger must rebuild his relationships with the state's Democratic lawmakers and with a skeptical electorate. Voters defeated not just Schwarzenegger's four initiatives but also the other four propositions on the Nov. 8 ballot, an election that cost state taxpayers about $50 million.

"Since Arnold is so popular in China, maybe he should run for governor there," Los Angeles resident Linda Moriarty wrote in a letter to the editor published this week in the Los Angeles Times. "He could eat Peking duck instead of crow."

Schwarzenegger wanted a state spending cap and authority to make midyear budget cuts, a change in the way legislative districts are drawn, a longer probationary period for teachers and restrictions on how public employee unions can raise money for political campaigns.

His measures targeted two powerful political forces -- the Democrats who control the Legislature and the public employee unions.

Schwarzenegger said he took full responsibility for the failure of the special election. In China, he said he wanted to put the debacle behind him and work with Democrats and labor groups.

"We're going to move on, work together with the nurses and all the other unions," he said after touring a Shanghai steel plant. "We're going to work together, Democrats and Republicans, because we want to make the state successful."

He said working with lawmakers to improve the state's schools, freeways and levees remained among his top priorities and that he had been impressed by China's investments in infrastructure to support its own burgeoning population.

"This is the part of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie when the hero has been beaten up and is ready to make his comeback," said Jack Pitney, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. "I think it will work out differently than the typical Schwarzenegger movie because his weapon will have to be charm rather than fire power."

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said he, too, was willing to move forward. But he cautioned that the state's problems and Schwarzenegger's standing among Democrats have not changed.

"I'm not expecting for the relationship between Democrats and the governor by any means to be a fairy tale ending here," Nunez said Friday. "He's got his view of the world and we have ours."

Members of Schwarzenegger's China trade delegation said they still had great faith in him as California's ambassador to the world. Several said they didn't expect the failure of his ballot initiatives to haunt him much longer.

"With the special election, he admitted it was his idea and that he was wrong. He took it on his shoulders," said Kelly Meine, president of Union Hide, a San Francisco Bay area leather company. "He's a passionate man who's got a wonderful wife who keeps him on an even keel."

Associated Press Writer Tom Chorneau contributed to this report from Sacramento, Calif.