Yao the Humanitarian

Yao has had a break of a couple of weeks since the World Championships, but he certainly hasn't spent the whole time lazing away.

Once again, he shows his true heart by making a visit to the Beijing Hui Lei School. It wasn't just an "ordinary" visit, as this one has a story behind it. Last year, Yao was working in Basketball without Borders (he's the kind of guy who does that stuff), and orinigally he was going to go to the dedication ceremony of the Beijing Hui Lei School. However, due to the fact he injured himself, he was unable to go, but later he wrote a personal letter to the school promising them that he would visit them in a year. And so, he did.

There are a lot of things that helped Yao adjust smoothly to the NBA, but one huge thing is that you really couldn't help but to like him. He wasn't arrogant, he wasn't presumptious, he was, in short, as unlike to most NBA players as day to night. Even if you get impatient with him, you cant' help but go back to him just because he's simply a great guy. Yi Jianlian would do well to learn from him.

On another note, he also made another visit, except this one wasn't so special (but it was still interesting). In this case, in his capacity as "official spokesman for China Unicom", he visited the reality TV show, Win in China (apparently, China seems to have found a liking for reality TV). Anyway, in this picture, he's shown signing the back of a girl's shirt. She looks extremely embarassed...but I would glady take her place.