REPORTING FROM BEIJING: It’s been a very busy past few days in Beijing for Yao and the players who came to China for his foundation’s charity gala and game, which was nationally televised in China on CCTV. As you might have seen on Yao’s Facebook page earlier, he posted the following:

Thank you to all the people who came to my foundation’s charity gala and game in Beijing this past weekend! It was a great success in raising funds and building fellowship. We do it again in Taipei in a couple of days.

Yao kept the motor running when early the next morning, he left Beijing for Shanghai for some appearances for the Shanghai Expo (more coverage of that to come). But before we move on from the activities that occurred in Beijing this past weekend, I wanted to share with you some select photos from the charity gala on Friday and the charity game on Saturday (video from these events will ultimately get posted, too!).

Yao Ming competes against a boy during his Charity Gala on who could build a Transformer toy the fastest. The boy ended up winning, even with Yao getting help from other NBA players.

For more photos from the Charity Gala, click here.

The Rockets’ Aaron Brooks flew to China for the Charity Game and gets his ankles taped in the locker room.

Hasheem Thabeet dons one of the official Charity Foundation jerseys in the locker room before the game.

All the NBA players line up during pre-game introductions.

A wall of photographers lines up the size of what you would see at an NBA Finals game.

The players watched the Chinese pre-game festivities like any fan would.

The players huddle during a timeout between quarters. The game was competitive in the first half, but the NBA players prevailed in the second, even after the planned move to put Steve Nash and Aaron Brooks on the other team in exchange for two Chinese players.

Yao’s Rocket teammates Chase and Aaron take a break during the game.

Brandon Jennings takes a jumper in the game, and made the crowd oooh and aahhh like always, as did all the players.

For more photos from the game and post-game news conference, click here and here.

Friday afternoon in Beijing, Yao Ming took part in a press conference to announce a new line of co-branded products with Monster (think “Monster Cable” not “Monster.com.”)

According to the press release, the Yao Monster products will range “from high performance headphones, lifestyle bags and performance glasses line, to home theater connectivity and power products” and “will offer consumers in China a unique ‘fusion of technology and life’ – and a fresh way to identify with their national hero as they enjoy experiences and avenues of self-expression once available only to a privileged few.”

This line of Yao Monster products actually look pretty cool…

Click here for more photos from Friday’s press conference.

There’s alot more content coming from Beijing, folks. There’s so much happening, it’s hard to keep up!

Another busy day in Beijing on Friday. In the morning the NBA players on tour here (Chase Budinger, Baron Davis, Amir Johnson, Dajuan Summers, Brandon Jennings, Hasheem Thabeet) took a bus to a nearby gym to practice for Saturday’s charity game being held for Yao Ming’s Foundation.

Surprisingly, the players didn’t mail it in. They went through several intensive drills, worked up a nice sweat, then followed it up with a full-court practice game [I’ve got video that I’ll be posting later].

Talking to Bill Duffy, the agent who represents all of the players participating in Yao’s Foundation Tour, these players came to China not only to help Yao with his Foundation, but also to keep their conditioning up during the off-season to raise their intensity level with other NBA players with them. And since these charity games are NBA-sanctioned, if they were to suffer an injury, they don’t have to worry contract-wise above and beyond if they were injured in an NBA game. So they worked hard and are taking a lot of pride into their game against the Chinese National Team on Saturday night.

Hasheem Thabeet, Chase Budinger, and the other NBA players go through dribbling drills.

Baron Davis and Hasheem Thabeet stretch during their workout.

One funny episode occurred when a few teenage boys who happened to be playing in a nearby facility wanted to get inside the gym so they could watch the NBA players working out. Graciously, they were allowed in to watch from the bleachers. It turned out that when the players were going to practice playing 5-on-5, they were short a couple of players, so the boys were invited on to the court to fill-in! They were reluctant at first, but after lots of encouragement, they ultimately came on to the court since they realized this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play against NBA competition!

You couldn’t wipe the smiles these boys had on their faces the entire time they were on the court. At one point one of the boys got the ball on an open fast break, looked great taking it to the basket, but he blew the open layup! Everyone laughed, including the boy, since he caved under the pressure of scoring his first basket against NBA players!

Another time, there was a lot of playful banter that one of the boys traveled after scoring a basket, but Baron Davis came to his defense since the boy was on his team! The whole gym cracked up as Baron continued to loudly make his case for the boy throughout the next possession!

All in all, the teenagers had a lot of fun and still had the smiles on their faces after the practice ended.

More activities occurred the rest of the day involving Yao, which I’ll get to in my next post in a few hours. There is so much happening here in Beijing, it’s hard to keep up!

Thursday night Yao Ming and many of the players who will be playing in Saturday’s charity game gathered at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Beijing for a press conference.

What’s impressive was that the players had just arrived from an 11-hour flight from Seattle (add on a few more hours for each of them to get to Seattle from their home city), checked into their hotel, and immediately went to the press conference where each one said a few words about how they were looking forward to helping Yao’s foundation through the charity games they will be playing.

Having made a similar flight myself to be in Beijing for this weekend’s events, I can tell you that’s no easy feat. They must have been really tired to do all of that in 24 hours. You could tell that Yao was very appreciative for the players to give their time and energy to such a worthy cause, and will continue to show his appreciation over the coming week.

Yao greets each player individually at the press conference for his Charity game and gala.

Also incredible was the number of media at the presser. I counted at least 15 video camera crews, and there were probably a couple dozen still photographers, and maybe 100 media members overall. This is probably about 4 or 5 times the number you would see in Houston for a similar press conference.

Click here for more photos from the press conference, which include pics of Brandon Jennings, Amir Johnson, Hasheem Thabeet, Baron Davis, Chase Budinger, and Dajuan Summers. Also in attendance were Chinese National team members Liu Wei, Ding Jinhui, and coach Bob Donewald, Jr. Steve Nash is expected to arrive today (Friday).

This morning many of the players will be heading to the stadium for a workout, and tonight is the charity gala dinner at the hotel. Tomorrow night is the game itself, then head to Taipei, Taiwan early next week for another game.

Raymond has posted in the forum some photos of Yao Ming visiting Monday his Shanghai MAXXIS Sharks training facility.

Click here for more photos of Yao visiting with his team and some of his humorous banter with the media about being a new father.

Yao is preparing for his charity galas and games in Beijing and Taipei, respectively. YaoMingMania is departing for Beijing tonight and will be covering some of Yao’s activities in China.

There was a big interview of Yao in the May issue of Harper’s Bazaar Men’s Style Magazine of China, along with lots of photos of Yao looking dapper in a business suit.

Click here for more photos and Raymond’s translation of the magazine’s interview of Yao.

On Tuesday, April 27th, Yao went to the Chinese Consulate in Houston to participate in a press conference and gathering of over 200 local Chinese community and academic leaders to pre-celebrate the Shanghai 2010 EXPO and Chinese/Texas “Friendly Relationship.”

In attendance was Texas Governor Rick Perry, who will be leading a Texas delegation to Shanghai and China in June.

Consul General to Houston Gao Yanping expressed that she hopes Governor Perry’s visit to China will further open the door to promoting a mutual exchange and cooperation in various fields between China and Texas.

Yao spoke a bit, and extended a warm welcome to Governor Perry and the delegation’s upcoming visit to China and the Shanghai 2010 EXPO. He told the Governor he hopes he enjoys the hospitality of the Shanghainese people, and that he shouldn’t miss some of the delicious Shanghainese food waiting there for him.

Click here for more photos of Yao and wife Ye Li at the press conference and gathering.

There’s a Chinese-U.S. business summit taking place in Los Angeles right now. They ran some polls, and Yao ranked at the top of two of them, even with him being unable to play over the past year.

The first poll regards Chinese individuals who are “Business Pacesetters in China” where Yao ranked over Jackie Chan, the chairman of Cheung Kong, Ltd., the chairman and CEO of Alibaba, the CEO of Sohu, and the President and CEO of Lenovo, just to name a few.

The second poll was “Reknown Chinese Brands in the U.S.” where Yao ranked far above brands like Haier, Acer, Lenovo, HTC, and CCTV.

We have seen many polls where Yao ranks as one of the top celebrities in China, but to rank so highly among a business crowd for business-oriented polls is quite impressive.

Click here for the official results.

Over the past couple of days, Yao has made a couple of posts on his Facebook and Twitter page.

Today he posted this on both:

Congrats to Aaron Brooks for winning the Most Improved Player Award. You deserved it. Thanks for your effort this season.

And yesterday he posted this on his Facebook page:

Juan Antonio Samaranch, who used to be the head of the IOC, died a couple of days ago. I’m sad that he passed, and that I didn’t get to know him personally. He was very famous in China and a good friend of our country. He supported us getting back into the Olympics. He was also the one who announced the 2008 Olympics would be held in Beijing.

What he did for us means way more than sports and the Olympics. His life is about friendship. Friendship is a very simple word, but how to do it is very very difficult, and he did it his entire life

Here’s a link to an article about Samaranch’s influence in China that Yao references. Personally, I’m glad Yao mentioned Samaranch’s impact on China since I didn’t realize how important he had been to China’s Olympic movement efforts.

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I’m a little late in doing a “Yao week in review,” so I’ll make this update on Yao’s latest activities a “last 10 days in review.”

Working back in time, a week ago Thursday (April 15th), Yao read to some Houston school kids as part of the NBA’s “Read to Achieve” program at a local HEB grocery store.

Click here for more photos from Yao’s reading to the kids.

The night before, Yao attended the Rockets’ final game of the season (played against the New Orleans Hornets), which was also Fan Appreciation Night. Before the game, Yao handed out popcorn to fans….

…then after the game, threw T-shirts into the crowd….

Click here for more photos from Yao’s Fan Appreciation Night activities.

On the Shanghai MAXXIS Sharks front, as you know, they lost their playoff series about 12 days ago against the Guangdong Tigers. The Sharks players, coaching staff, significant others, sponsors, officials from the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau, etc., got together for a cruise on the Huangpu River.

Click here for more photos from the Sharks get-together.

In this thread among all the photos, we also learn about some of the plans for foreign players John Lucas III, Garrett Siler, and Zaid Abbas. As a team, we learn what took place after the loss to Guangdong and the team’s plans over the next few weeks and months, according to a translation by Raymond from a Chinese article:

– Each player, including the expats, had a 1-on-1 discussion with coach Bob Donewald, Jr. and senior management on April 13 to talk about their individual performances for the season and improvements needed. Players were also free to provide input on how the club could be improved.

– Starting April 14, players have been given 3-5 weeks of vacation time, but the team is still adopting an “active rest” strategy where each player is asked to maintain a certain amount of exercise each day during their vacation: hitting the gym, jogging, cycling, swimming and so on.

– When players report back to the club after the vacation, a scenic spot with historical and cultural significance (tentatively Yunnan) will be chosen for 10 days to 2 weeks of physical training that won’t include basketball activities.

– Basketball training will follow after the physical training, then some invitational games will be played. Select players will be sent to overseas training camps in Taiwan, Australia, the USA and Europe. In addition, players will participate in a series of community/charity activities, including visiting the 2010 Shanghai EXPO, and the counseling of young players.

– After this training, the players will get a break to relax. Then one month before the start of the new season, the players will report back to the club to begin their preseason training.

Finally, it’s reported that the Sharks coach Bob Donewald, Jr. may be tapped to become the Chinese National Team coach, although Yao has him signed to a 3-year contract, but could release him from the contract temporarily. We’ll be following closely to see what happens.