Raymond reports that it was a busy Sunday for Yao. Giving up his own time to rest and relax with family during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he decided to spend it with those who suffered during the recent earthquakes.

Yao woke up at 5:00am, left Chengdu at 06:15 am for Guangyuan (300 kilometers away), taking him 4 hours to get there. (Click here to see photos of Yao leaving the hotel and on his way to Guangyuan).

Once he arrived, he participated in the foundation laying ceremony of a Hope Project primary school (Click here for more photos).

He then distributed gifts for the school children there, including books to practice Chinese caligraphy, Xinhua English/Chinese dictionaries, pencil cases, color crayons, jump rope, caps, writing pads, basketballs and moon cakes.

He also played with the school kids the game “the old eagle catches little chicken” ?????.

After the foundation laying ceremony at the Hope Project primary school, Yao had a simple lunch and proceeded to Jiuling to preside over the foundation laying ceremony for a primary school donated by his endorser, China Insurance.

Yao Ming also donated basketballs and other sporting equipment to the school. (Click here for more photos of Yao at the school).

After the foundation laying ceremony for the China Insurance primary school at Jiuling, Yao made an impromptu decision to visit the most severely hit area of Beichun (still under a blockade) and paid tribute to the thousands who died there. (Click here for more photos).

Yao then went to visit a beleaguered family in Beichun and had dinner with them. To avoid too much disturbance to the poor family, he did not allow the media to cover that part of his visit.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 8:13 pm and is filed under China, Rockets' off-season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.