Yao Ming and Luis Scola were two of several Olympic athletes honored at yesterday’s Houston Texans game at Reliant Stadium. Check out some video here:

Earlier that morning, Yao and the Rockets had a practice and workout at Toyota Center. Click here for more photos from the practice.

Here are more photos from Friday’s training camp, Day 4, courtesy of Raymond.

Yao Ming was back in Houston for Media Day today where he met his new teammate Ron Artest.

Click here for Raymond’s photos from Media Day.

On top of that, the electricity in Yao’s house was restored today from Hurricane Ike. The mood wasn’t all festive, though, considering the news that Tracy McGrady will have to play with arthritis in his left shoulder this season, Shane Battier will miss up to 4 weeks because of swelling in his ankle after rehabbing it after surgery in the off-season, and Rafer Alston still not in top condition. Click here for the story.

Check out this interesting story from Raymond about Yao’s visit to see the Shanghai Ballet Troupe.

Raymond reports that Yao Ming, upon his return from Sichuan, volunteered in his capacity as the Official Image Spokesperson for Shanghai Municipality to host a welcome dinner reception on Friday for the Olympic Champions at the Yacht Club On the Bund, an exclusive private club on the famous Shanghai Bund.

Yao personally called Liu Xiang to ask him to join him to co-host the dinner reception for the athletes, including 9 Olympic Champions that are competing in the sporting event.

Liu Xiang first declined so he could rest his injured leg, but he eventually agreed to show up on the occasion in his capacity as Shanghai Municipality’s image spokesperson.

Read more of Raymond’s coverage of the event along with photos by clicking here.

Raymond reports that yesterday the United Nations presented to Yao Ming and two other Chinese the UNAIDS Awards for Outstanding Contributions to the AIDS Response to recognize their special contribution to AIDS Prevention and Care programs in China.

Since Yao Ming had just wrapped up his Sichuan tour and had just arrived in Shanghai, he could not make it to the award ceremony in Beijing, but delegated his Chinese agent Lu Hao to receive the award on his behalf. Click here for more of the story and photos from the award ceremony.

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.