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[color=darkred]And he talked to Houston Chronicle about his rehab progress as well as his desire to remain with the Houston Rockets.[/color]

[color=red]Here is that interview.[/color][/size]

[quote]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/spo ... 71678.html

[size=150][color=red]Yao says ankle shows progress;
wants to stay with Rockets[/color][/size]

[size=109]By JOSEPH DUARTE

May 19, 2011, 12:10PM .

Yao Ming said Thursday that he's still a few months from knowing his availability for next season, but that [color=red]"everything looks good"[/color] with his surgically-repaired left ankle.

Yao said he was encouraged by his latest doctor's visit Wednesday, which showed his ankle improving from the stress fracture that eventually required surgery and limited him to five games last season.

[color=red]Yao remained non-commital about whether he will be able to play next season and said he should know more by August or September.[/color]

"It's too early to say," Yao said during an appearance at Hunters Creek Elementary in west Houston.

[color=red]Yao, who will become an unrestricted free agent July 1, said he would like to remain with the Rockets.[/color]

Rockets owner Leslie Alexander and general manager Daryl Morey have expressed their desire to re-sign Yao if he's healthy.

"I'd like to be here," Yao said. "Nowhere else is better than Houston for me right now."

[color=red]Asked if there were any issues to making that happen, Yao said: "The only issue is my injury." [/color]

Yao played in only five games last season and required surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left ankle.

The 7-foot-6 center has had his career derailed by injuries the past few years, most notably to his left foot and ankle.

Yao said his rehab remains on schedule, and X-rays taken Wednesday "showed good news." He hasn't worn the protective boot for a few months and is able to do light jogging and weight lifting.

The next doctor's visit is planned for later this summer, although Yao said there was not yet an exact date.

"We'll know more in August or September," he said.

Based on his past injury history, Yao was cautious not to put any timetable on a possible return.

"All I can do right now is what I'm supposed to do everyday," he said. "You never know what happens tomorrow."

[color=red]If the season began today, Yao said he would not be ready, but he admits that's not the long-term goal.[/color]

"Right now, no, but I still have a couple of months or more," he said.

[b]When he returns to the court, Yao said he expects a similar plan as last year when the Rockets limited his playing time. That plan was scrubbed when Yao was lost for the season in November.

[color=red]Yao also said he has been monitoring the Rockets' coaching search, which is focused on three finalists

[size=117][color=red]MORE photos of Yao Ming's visit to Hunter Creek Elementary [/color][color=darkred]to make good on a commitment he made for an auction from the Tux & Tennies Gala. Lucky first-grader [b]Jackson Loyd

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[color=red]So after a 3-week stay in Houston, Yao Ming went back to Shanghai yesterday (May 26) with his family (mother, his wife Ye Li, and his 1-year-old daughter, Amy Yao Qinlei).[/color]

[color=darkred]Their flight MU586 (transiting Los Angeles) arrived Pudong, Shanghai at about 17:00 pm in the afternoon.

Because it is the first time that Amy Yao gets back home since her birth, hundreds of press/media reporters gathered before the entrance of the VIP channel of Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Yao Ming's home in Shanghai yesterday, trying to get a glimpse of Yao Ming and his family, [/color][color=red]particularly to get a photo shot of the small Amy Yao.

But they were all disappointed and had to leave empty-handed, [/color][color=darkred]as under special arrangement (and police escort), Yao's family left directly from the apron without taking the VIP channel and they went back to not their previous home in Xuhui District but to another place.

And after some futile searching over Internet, all I got was the following photo of Yao Ming taken upon arrival together with a Chinese Immigration/Customs official inside the airport.

[img]http://img1.gtimg.com/sports/pics/hv1/3/17/786/51113988.jpg[/img]

But according to some sources from immigration officials:

• Amy Yao uses a US passport;


• She is slightly taller than most normal 1-year-old, probably due to the genes of her parents.

[/color][/size]

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[color=darkred]Given the looming NBA lockout for the new season, and the fact that he will be a free agent this summer with his future in NBA still pending,[/color][color=red] it seems that it's going to be a long stay for Yao Ming this time in China !!!

According to what Erik Zhang Mingji disclosed to the media, Yao Ming is going to stay in China for at least the whole of this summer.

Some of the things that are on his current schedule will be as follows:[/color]

[color=darkred]

• Organize a birthday party in Shanghai for Amy Yao Qinlei who just had her birthday celebrated May 21 in Houston.
  


• Meetings/Planning sessions with Team Yao on club/players matters regarding his team, Shanghai MAXXIS Sharks.
  


• Continue to work out details re the 3rd Yao Ming Foundation Charity Game/Gala which will be held in Shanghai in August.
  


• The inauguration ceremony in Ganxu in June for another Yao Foundation Project Hope primary school.
  


• Towards end June, Yao Ming will travel to Athens Greece together with the Chinese Special Olympics delegation; he is invited in his capacity as the Global Ambassador of Special Olympics to attend the opening ceremony of the 2011 Special Olympics in Athens (June 25 ~ July 4).
  


• Basketball and other commercial related activities in July/August
  


• Of course, his continuous rehabilitation from his foot injury

[/color][color=red]As his current schedule stands, it looks like it is unlikely for him to represent China to compete in the 2011 FIBA Asian Championship in Wuhan this September for the sole ticket to 2012 London Olympics.[/color][/size]

Since Amy Yao uses a passport, she needs a visa to enter China.
Yao Ming needs to apply Chinese citizenship for her.

[size=117]
[color=red]Yao Ming is currently in Jiuquan City of Gansu.[/color]

[color=darkred]He flew to Jiuquan City of Gansu yesterday morning from Shanghai transiting Xian.

After almost 10-hour travel, he arrived at Jiuquan Jiayuguan Airport around 16:00 pm in the afternoon.

He then went straight to the Jiuquan Municipal Sports Academy at 17:00 pm almost without any rest.

Waiting there in the sports academy were 20 some students with intellectual disabilities from the Yao Foundation Project Hope Special Training School that Yao Ming Foundation donated/built in Gansu and also 20 some students from the Jiuquan Municipal Sports Academy.

Yao Ming, in his capacity of the Global Ambassador for Special Olympics, then gave a session of Unified Sports in the form of a basketball clinic, teaching the intellectual handicapped students some basketball fundamentals, pairing them up with normal students.

One of the students of Yao Foundation Project Hope Special Training School, Chen Xiaorong will be representing China in the forthcoming 13th Special Olympics to be held in Athens end June. Yao Ming specifically picked her out, gifted her a pair of running shoes and encouraged Chen to believe in herself and give her best performance in Athens.[/color][/size]

[size=117][color=red]Photos of Yao Ming during the unified sports session in the Jiuquan Municipal Sports Academy. [/color][/size]

[img]http://img1.gtimg.com/2/213/21323/2132374_550x550_0.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img1.gtimg.com/2/213/21323/2132375_550x550_0.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img1.gtimg.com/2/213/21323/2132377_550x550_0.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img1.gtimg.com/2/213/21323/2132379_550x550_0.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img1.gtimg.com/2/213/21323/2132381_550x550_0.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img1.gtimg.com/2/213/21323/2132382_550x550_0.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i2.sinaimg.cn/ty/k/p/2011-06-09/1307620014_VkP48W.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i3.sinaimg.cn/ty/k/p/2011-06-09/1307619954_D1imt9.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i0.sinaimg.cn/ty/k/p/2011-06-09/1307620020_VR30G7.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1.sinaimg.cn/ty/k/p/2011-06-09/1307619901_gH6EiS.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1.sinaimg.cn/ty/k/p/2011-06-09/1307619898_0WYw8T.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i3.sinaimg.cn/ty/k/p/2011-06-09/1307619895_dVzi7P.jpg[/img]

[size=117][color=red]Yao Ming appeared today (June 10) to preside in the inauguration ceremony of yet another Project Hope primary school Yao Foundation donated and built; this time, it is the Jiuquan Nash~Yao Foundation Special Education School situated in the Suzhou district of Jiuquan City of Gansu. [/color]

[color=darkred]This is the very first of such special education school in the city of Jiuquan for deaf and dumb and intellectual disabled children. Its building cost was RMB 7 million, co-funded by [b]Shanghai Special Care Foundation, Yao Ming Foundation, Youth Development Foundation of Gansu Province, and People

[size=117][color=red]Photos of Yao Ming in the inauguration ceremony of the Jiuquan Nash ~ Yao Foundation Special Education School this morning.[/color][/size]

[img]http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx67/pryuen/yao11-3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx67/pryuen/yao2-26.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img4.cache.netease.com/photo/0005/2011-06-10/766KFQC200MK0005.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i3.sinaimg.cn/ty/cba/2011-06-10/U338P6T12D5614169F44DT20110610135136.JPG[/img]

[img]http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx67/pryuen/yao7-18.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx67/pryuen/yao10-11.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img3.cache.netease.com/photo/0005/2011-06-10/766KFS2I00MK0005.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx67/pryuen/yao4-25.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx67/pryuen/yao9-11.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.sinaimg.cn/dy/slidenews/2_img/2011_23/786_387979_629137.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx67/pryuen/yao5-21.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx67/pryuen/yao14-1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx67/pryuen/yao15-1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img3.cache.netease.com/photo/0005/2011-06-10/766KFRGR00MK0005.jpg[/img]

Yao needs to spend more time to working out.