I didn’t think that Yao’s busy Thursday schedule could be topped on Friday, but it did. So much happened, it took me a day to go through all of the photos (after my machine crashed and took me all day to fix). Below is my report from Yao’s activities in Houston on Friday.

Yao first started the day by making an appearance at the Asia Society Texas Center in Houston where he participated in a luncheon limited to about 40 guests (to keep it very intimate) who purchased premium tickets to benefit the Asia Society to have a great lunch, and hear Yao be interviewed by Jay Williams. Williams was the player chosen #2 in the 2002 NBA Draft right after Yao was selected #1 by the Rockets. Williams is now an analyst for ESPN.

Below are some photos from the event. Also served was Yao Ming’s Cabernet Sauvignon from his Yao Family Wines winery.

If you want to get a good idea of some of what Yao discussed with Jay, you can check out this video of Yao that was filmed a few days before the luncheon.

There were many funny moments as Yao shared his dry wit with the audience. But one of the most touching moments of the discussion happened at the end when Williams corrected an earlier statement of Yao’s when Yao said that every NBA player is unique. Williams begged to differ, telling the audience that Yao is not only unique because of his talent, but because of his character as well.

Immediately after the luncheon, Yao went to the 5th Ward in Houston where the NBA was holding one of two events where NBA players in town for the All-Star game could help out in the community.

One of the funniest moments occurred when Dikembe Mutombo walked up and told some of the organizers and pointed to a project nearby that Yao should be working on because it was more difficult than the “easy” one he was working on.

Yao then moved over to help some other volunteers move a Jungle Jim that had just been assembled to a spot where it would be permanently placed. On his way over, he physically bumped into Tim Duncan (not pictured) from behind, which kind of surprised him, but was funny.

A few minutes later, Yao ran into Kobe Bryant and they exchanged a few pleasantries. Bryant seemed really happy to see Yao. That says a ton about how loved Yao is among his former competitors. It’s also refreshing to see a serious superstar like Bryant get a big smile on his face like this one that you rarely see from him.

It was at this event where I witnessed that people in Houston still go crazy when they see Yao. It’s really interesting to see how they react when they see him. The looks of awe on their faces when they see how big he is in person — or the smiles he brings to their faces — is amazing.

But unlike just a few years ago, it seems like just about everyone has a camera in their cellphone now. As a result, Yao is crowded by even more people because they all want a photo of him, and he was getting requests from tons of people (non NBA players) to have their photo taken with him.

To make things worse, many times the requestors would hand their camera phone to someone else to take their photo, but then that person has trouble understanding what button they needed to push on the phone to take the picture, thus making things very awkward and frustrating for people like me who want Yao to be able to move about freely in his life without being a walking tourist attraction.

Poor Yao. He handles it so well, but I just wish more people would respect his space, just wave hello to him, and not get so enamored taking a photo with him using their camera phones. I also wish some of the media wouldn’t keep asking him the same dumb questions that he’s probably answered a million times, like the question he was asked, “How does it feel to give back to the community?’

Yao obliged as much as he could with all of these requests, but it really was too much since it slowed him from moving more than a few feet without getting hit up for another request.

Finally, Yao’s final stop for the day was at Houston’s City Hall where he was officially proclaimed a Goodwill Ambassador for the City of Houston by the mayor. I was able to get some cool photos of Yao walking in downtown Houston and in front of City Hall in the city that has embraced him since 2002.

Yao then went inside City Hall where a throng of reporters, photographers and videographers were waiting for him to cover the ceremonial event. Check out the dozen or so cameraman in the back of the room that were there to cover it. You would think that this photo was taken in Shanghai or Beijing with all the media that was there!

Below Yao and the mayor talk as Rockets’ TV commentator Bill Worrell is about to start his opening remarks.

This presentation was a much bigger deal than you would first think since the mayor, Annise Parker, said she purposely has never given a key to the city to anyone since she has been mayor over the past 3 years! She takes it very seriously, but she knew Yao was a worthy recipient since she knows he will represent the city well.

Check out some video here of the mayor’s remarks.

A sweet impromptu moment occurred when a little girl of Asian descent (not pictured) in a Houston Rockets jersey brought a bouquet of flowers up to Yao while he was on stage. Yao holds the bouquet in the photo below.

Yao and his parents later signed a large poster of Yao.

Afterwards, the media surrounds Yao as you would expect.

As mentioned earlier today (Thursday), Yao went to the Houston Zoo Thursday afternoon as part of his continuing effort to educate young people about the importance of caring for endangered species and animals native to Africa.

Below is a pic of Yao meeting some of the kids.

The first stop was to visit the giraffes where Yao — when looking up to them — said something to the effect like, “Now I know how you guys feel when I enter a room.”

Yao moved on to feed them some lettuce, which they chowed down.

Yao then visited with the kids in front of a rhinoceros, and Yao knew his stuff since he became educated about them when he took his trip to Africa last summer.

This rhinoceros weighs over 3,000 pounds, but Yao knew that they really liked being scratched behind the ear (the softest skin on their body) like Yao is doing here. Yao even asked the kids if they would like to come up and touch the rhinoceros in the same spot, and many of them did.

Later Yao went over to the elephant pen where he did some tricks for Yao, like lifting his foot…

…and stand on its head…

After spending some time with the elephants and the kids, Yao went to a theater in the Zoo to talk to the children about the importance of wildlife preservation, and to watch a trailer for a WildAid film that’s scheduled to be released this Summer that chronicles Yao’s eye-opening trip to Africa last summer.

Later in the evening, Yao made an appearance at Jeremy Lin’s Foundation charity event at Houston’s Minute Maid Park (where the Astros play).

It was a long day for Yao, so after he left, Jeremy and Daryl played a mean game of table tennis.

Yao was a busy man on Thursday in Houston. In the early afternoon, he filmed a commercial in Houston with Jeremy Lin and Dikembe Mutombo for WildAid to promote wildlife preservation. Here’s a few pics:

Yao and Dikembe meet for the first time in a long time.

Reportedly the consumption of shark fin soup is down 50% since Yao took up the cause to prevent the massive killings of sharks for the delicacy. That said, Yao said that having Jeremy helping out will be a huge advancement since he is so well regarded in China where most shark fin consumption occurs.

Immediately afterwards, Yao went to the Houston Zoo to meet with children to educate them about rhinos and elephants. I’ll post those pics a little later.

There hasn’t been much to report about Yao over the past couple of months, but we finally have a few updates for you.

Last week Yao was in South Korea for the Special Olympics World Winter Games since Yao is still a Global Ambassador for the Special Olympics.

Below he is pictured taking part in a snowshoe relay, which he says is the first time he has tried a winter sport.

Also participating was his wife Ye Li, and international movie star Zhang Ziyi, pictured below.

Click here for more photos of Yao and others running in the snowshoe relay.

The next day Yao and his wife served breakfast for the special athletes.

Click here for more photos of Yao serving breakfast.

In case you missed it, last week the Washington Post published an interview with Yao. They provide a pretty good recap of Yao’s life after retiring from the NBA, his relationship with Jeremy Lin, and the state of basketball in China. It’s highly recommended reading. Check it out here.

Yao is now in Houston for next week’s NBA All-Star festivities where we plan to cover some of his activities here on YaoMingMania.

In addition, on Friday the 15th in Houston at the Asia Society of Texas, non-members can purchase tickets and hear about Yao’s career and his rise to global icon status during a private luncheon. Guests will also get a taste of the first vintages of the Yao Ming Napa Valley Cabernet. Click here for more details.

As you probably know, the NBA was in China last week and this weekend as the Clippers and Heat played an exhibition game in Beijing last Thursday, and played another game in Shanghai on Sunday.

Before Sunday’s game in a press conference with NBA commissioner David Stern and Yao Ming, Stern announced the NBA will be supporting Yao’s bi-annual Foundation charity game in China starting the summer of 2013. [Note: this story has been updated to reflect a bi-annual game, not an annual one as previously reported].

This is great news since a game wasn’t played this summer because of the conflict with the Olympic games in London, and Yao’s career-ending injuries and retirement impacted plans for a game in 2011.

The NBA also announced they have agreed to help players and coaches in the Chinese Basketball Association for the next 3 years.

This past summer, the NBA announced it will work in China with the Yao Ming Foundation on a broad and comprehensive partnership to further basketball participation, develop youth basketball, promote cultural exchange and conduct social responsibility programs in China. In addition, Yao will collaborate with the league to launch basketball and social development programs for Chinese youth through NBA Cares and the Yao Foundation for communities in need.

If you’re interested, here’s the video of the press conference where Stern and Yao talk about the benefits of the NBA working with Yao and basketball in China. Here are more photos from the press conference.

Last week you might have seen this post we had of Yao in Africa. Since then, he has been keeping very busy bringing attention to the terrible slaughter of elephants and rhinoceros in Africa for their tusks, many of which are used to create ivory jewelry bought by Chinese.

Below is a striking photo of Yao in an “ivory room” of confiscated tusks, showing how bad the problem is. And these are just the tusks that were confiscated.

Below, Yao meets a village elder in the village of Samburu. What an amazing shot.

…and here he meets some children on a dirt basketball court.

There are so many photos and stories on a special blog that WildAid has setup for Yao, I couldn’t possibly cover it all here. But I suggest you check it out as Yao brings more attention to Chinese citizens about the damage being done to Africa’s wildlife — more than any other Chinese citizen could do.

By the way, Yao’s trip is getting attention even among the U.S. press, as seen by this coverage in Yahoo! Sports’ basketball blog. Talk about Yao transcending the sport of basketball!

After Yao left the London Olympics a few days ago, he took a Virgin Atlantic flight to Africa where he has been filming a documentary for WildAid to help save endangered species.

Below, Yao is with armed guards in Kenya who do rhino patrolling at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, home to Kenya’s highest concentration of wildlife.

The guards know each and every rhino by name and sight, and if they can’t find one during their daily patrol, then they use a plane to patrol the entire conservancy until all rhinos are accounted for. Pictured below, Yao meets two of the rhinos.

But protecting rhinos from illegal poaching is time consuming and expensive. That’s one of the reasons why Yao has made the trip, and is blogging for WildAid here where you can see many more photos and personal blog entries from his trip.

You can also see Raymond’s coverage of Yao’s trip starting here in the YaoMania forum.

About 8 days ago Yao Ming and his wife Ye Li attended “Artistry on Ice” featuring some of the world’s top figure skaters at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. Sitting with them were the TV-movie star couple Deng Chao and Sun Li.

Click here for more photos of Yao at the “Artistry on Ice” event.

After the show, Yao and Ye Li met with Jeffey Buttle and Joannie Rochette, Olympic medalists and World Champions from Canada. Look how small they look!

On June 20th, Yao appeared in a press conference to announce he will be part of Celebrity Pro-Am golf tournament in October at the Mission Hills golf course in Haikou of Hainan Island.

Yao will be the Charity Ambassador for the 2nd bi-annual tournament, which will benefit the Yao Ming Foundation and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The tournament was first staged in 2010 and has already become one of the region`s leading lifestyle and entertainment events.

At the press conference, Yao said he has become addicted to golf.

“I am a totally fresh hand in golf and just began to learn how to play it. Golf is a good experience, and it brings back fond memories of when I was strong-minded and determined to go on the path when I started to learn basketball in my childhood.”

Yao also said he hopes golf will help him keep fit since he has been struggling to control his weight since retirement.

“If golf proves useful in weight control, I will persist with it,” he said.

This year’s 2012 Mission Hills World Celebrity Pro-Am, like the inaugural one, will feature many famous professionals, celebrities and movie stars from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the world.

Joining Yao will be Brazilian football superstar Ronaldo, Chinese gymnast and international businessman Li Ning, former world number one snooker player Stephen Hendry and past Masters champion Ian Woosnam.

Celebrities include famous film directors Feng Xiaogang and He Ping, film actors Wang Zhiwen, Chen Tao-ming, Zhang Guoli, Sun Nan, Leon Lai, Coco Lee, Charlie Young, Simon Yam and Michelle Chen. More celebrities will be announced later.

The professional golfers who will play will compete for a prize purse of $1 million.

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

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Yao since our last update, so here’s a summary of what he has been doing since then (thanks to Raymond for the summaries):

Yao Ming and Liu Xiang appeared at the opening ceremony of the inaugural Shanghai Municipal amateur public competition on June 10.

The purpose of the competition is to raise awareness on the importance of physical fitness, so the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau will organize Shanghai’s inaugural amateur public sports competition for all Shanghai residents, as well as tourists and ex-pats working and living in Shanghai to participate.

The event will last for 5 months, starting June 10th all the way through November 17, and apart from basketball, football, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, and swimming competitions, it will feature a range of demonstrations, from body-building to more traditional Chinese sports such as martial arts.

Around June 6th, Yao Ming’s Shanghai MAXXIS Sharks officially called off a trip to The Philippines for so-called “goodwill games” amidst a tense Chinese-Filipino territorial dispute.

On June 9th, Yao Ming went to Linshu of Shandong to donate RMB 1.5M for the 14th Yao Foundation Project Hope Primary School.

Yao took a late evening flight to fly Qingdao from Shanghai on June 8, and had to travel by car for 3 to 4 hours to arrive in Linshu.

This will be the very first Yao Foundation Project Hope Primary School in East China. The first thirteen Yao Foundation Project Hope primary schools were in the Southwest provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Qinghai.

The RMB 1.5 million will be used to refurbish and build new school complex and facilities at an old school, the Taoyuan Elementary School founded in 1985. The Taoyuan Elementary School currently has six classes, 350 students, and 16 teachers.

After the refurbishment and expansion, it is expected the new school will be able to educate more than 700 students, and will become much larger with new sports facilities and equipment.

Yao Ming’s 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon won a silver medal at the world’s most authoritative and prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards in London.

President and Director of Winemaking Tom Hinde stated, “This is not an easy competition, and the best wines from around the world are showcased. To win a silver medal for our inaugural vintage confirms our dedication to producing superior wines that are a true representation of Napa Valley quality.”

The Decanter World Wine Awards is the world’s leading wine competition. The competition is well known for its rigorous judging process, which has led to the Decanter World Wine Awards becoming the most trusted and prestigious source of wine recommendations for wine lovers worldwide. This year, over 200 judges from around the world assessed 14,119 wines from 47 countries, the largest entry ever for the Decanter World Wine Awards. The judging panel consisted of wine merchants, sommeliers, journalists and authors, including 54 Masters of Wine and 11 Master Sommeliers.

The 2012 Decanter World Wine Awards were announced on May 22, 2012 at The London International Wine Fair.

Check out this video with Yao posted yesterday where he talks about his busy life in retirement, including his involvement with conservation efforts…

For more information on the Yao Foundation and its new conservation initiatives, click here.