Below is a video that Raymond found that includes Yao as well as interviews in English of Yao’s trainer Anthony Falsone and Rockets’ assistant trainer Keith Garnett that was produced on Monday, July 7th. Falsone and Garnett (along with Rockets assistant coach Jack Sikma) are in China to monitor and assist in Yao’s rehabilitation efforts leading up to the Olympics.

To read a translated interview with Garnett about Yao’s progress, click here.

In this video Yao, Falsone and Garnett are seen participating in an academic exchange seminar with some sports doctors from Chinese Basketball Association teams.

Check this video out, too…

Here’s a new Chinese Coke commercial that just started airing in China on July 7th:

The first part of the following video is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the video above (spoken in Chinese). The white, bald guy lighting the Olympic torch with Yao is Yao’s trainer Anthony Falsone.

Finally, here’s a video of Yao and LeBron James that should be airing worldwide very soon:

Thanks always to Raymond in China for finding these vids.

Raymond has posted in the forum some Olympic posters he has found that are on display in Beijing, including this 11 meter tall statue of Yao Ming that was hoisted yesterday in Wangfujing, the busiest shopping district in the city.

Click here to see more of the Olympic posters Raymond found.

Yao held a presser today in China in which he said:

– he’s about 80% healed
– he’ll be able to play full-court basketball in mid-July
– he has a 50/50 chance of playing in the Stankovic Cup starting July 17th
– much, much more

Click here for more details and photos from the press conference.

Sticking with his original plan, Yao landed in China today. Raymond has all the pics here:

My friend Ren just got back from Shanghai and took lots of photos of some cool photos. check ’em out here or click on the photo below. Thanks Ren!

Raymond found some photos on a Chinese Web site that were taken on the set for an Olympic Coke commercial featuring Yao. Click here for more photos from the set.

Below is a video of the commercial (click the little ‘play’ button in the lower left-hand corner). Yao appears at the very end of it. Note: the video is hosted in China, so for those of you watching it in the U.S., it may take awhile for the whole thing to load.

Today Yao Ming held a pretty cool virtual press conference with members from the media located in Houston, New York, Beijing and San Jose that allowed him to see all the reporters on one screen.

In the interview, Yao talked about how his goal for the Chinese team is to advance to the next round of their Group, which means they would have to finish in the top 8 among 12 teams. Click here for more photos from the press conference, as well as more details about his hopes and plans for the summer.

Despite being the host country, the Chinese National Team didn’t get a good draw, having to face Team USA in their first game of the Olympics. They are also in the same bracket as world champion Spain. There will be 3 other teams in their bracket for a total of six.

All 6 of these teams will play in a round-robin format, with the top 4 teams advancing to play winners from the other bracket.

You can check out more of the story by clicking here.

Here’s another story on China’s draw.