Later in episode sound effects heard in The six million dollar man / The bionic woman can be heard. These effects mentioned for both previous shows were primarily to show bionic strength was being used. In China Doll it was just a musical effect.
Suesie Elene, who plays Mai Ling in this episode, played a similarly named character, Mai Ping, on M*A*S*H (S5.E20).
This is the first time that the opening credits did not include a comma in the series name. The comma eventually was put back in making it officially Magnum, P.I. (1980)
This is the first episode to try the "new" theme music. This was later rejected and replaced with the original theme.
A scene near the end after Thomas talks to Higgins where Thomas turns and raises his eyebrows twice was reused extensively later on.