Raymond has translated two interviews that Yao gave regarding his thoughts of his tour of the earthquake region.

Here’s the one that appeared on Sohu Sports. A couple of inches below that one is the translated interview that he gave to Titan Sports.

On another note, Yao’s house in Houston was damaged a bit from Hurricane Ike. It lost water, electricity and phone service; some windows were broken, and the fence around his house was destroyed by fallen trees.

According to Yao, his wife Ye Li got back to Houston for the new semester at the University of Houston, and she had to go to another friend’s home to recharge the batteries on her mobile phone in order to call Yao. It is estimated it will take at least 1 week for the electricity to come back at his house.

Raymond reports that Yao had a relative easy day today on Monday. He spent the night in Mianyang yesterday, and this morning he participated in a CBA Hope Project and visited a school of the People Liberation Army located in the PLA region of Mianyang. He was joined there by Miao Lijie, a WCBA star, and other CBA officials.

The CBA donated a full set of basketball equipment and some other sporting equipment to the Bayi Canvas Camping School, and Yao Ming and Miao Lijie coached two teams of young kids.

They played two games: ball handling & passing between the legs, and a basketball relay between 2 kids. Yao’s team lost in both of the games, but he saved some face when his team beat Miao Lijie’s team in a basketball game.

After the morning visit, Yao Ming’s 2008 Sichuan Love Tour came to an end, and traveled 4-5 hours to return to Chengdu, at which time he returned to Shanghai.

Click here for more photos of Yao’s third day of touring.

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” ?????.

Read the rest of this entry »

Raymond reports that right after his 28th birthday yesterday (September 12), Yao Ming left Shanghai and arrived in Chengdu of Sichuan (the provincial capital) this afternoon to start his three-day visit to the earthquake-affected areas.

Click here for more photos of Yao’s visit.

Yao was greeted in the hotel conference room by Li Dengju, a standing member of the Sichuan Provincial Communist Party Committee, and was awarded 2 honors:

First, as the honorary committee member of the Sichuan Provincial Youth Federation

Second, an offer contract from the Sichuan Province as the Love Ambassador of Sichuan seismic teenagers in the affected areas.

Starting tomorrow, Yao will visit the most severely hit areas, including Dujiangyan, Qingchun and Mianyang.

Yao has also brought alot of mooncakes and plans to spend tomorrow night (September 14th, Sunday), which is the Mid-Autmn Festival, a major Chinese festival known for family reunions, together with the earthquake victims/children.

He will be present to lay the foundation for two primary schools in the two days of his stay in Sichuan, the proceeds of the construction of which will come out of Yao Foundation. The Foundation is ready to donate 10 million RMB for such endeavors, like building schools for the children in earthquake affected cities/counties.

Raymond came across some photos on a Chinese forum where a fan posted some photos of Yao Ming and his trainer Anthony Falsone running sprints in Shanghai’s Luwan Stadium last Saturday.

Click here for more photos that were taken during their training session.

Yao Ming‘s CNT teammate Sun Yue signed a contract with the Lakers last month after being drafted by them. Then yesterday he signed a contract with Adidas and received his Lakers jersey.

Raymond has also graciously translated this interview of Sun Yue.

Click here and here for more photos from the signing ceremony.

It was a special day today since one of my favorite basketball players of all-time was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame today.

Check out photos of the Dream and other players and coaches from today’s induction announcement. Click here for the story.

So what do you think of the new 2008-09 marketing campaign? Read more about it here.

Raymond reports that Shane Battier was the guest of honor at an “NBA Big Bandwagon” event at the Wuhan International Convention Centre Square.

Shane acted as the judge for a dunking contest, was an award presenter for the slam dunk champion, and announced the winners of a cheerleading contest.

The next day (September 1st), Shane went to a temporary settlement area for the earthquake survivors in Dujiangyan of Sichuan, and together with China Peak donated RMB 200K worth of clothing and sports equipment to the youngsters there.

He also demonstrated to the youngsters his 3-point shooting, as well as gave some basketball lessons to young players from the Sichuan provincial team.

A young earthquake survivor (and a fan of Shane’s) who had both of his feet amputated due to the earthquake was there for a 3-versus-3 basketball game between the Sichuan provinical team and a team from the high school of Dujiangyan.

Click here for more of Shane’s activities.