Hosting athletes would promote harmony

Basketball star Yao Ming, arguably the most famous Chinese figure in world sport, hopes his involvement in the 2022 Winter Olympics bid will help to promote a healthier lifestyle among his fellow countrymen.

Having experienced the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics as an athlete, Yao, who retired from the National Basketball Association in 2011 because of injury, is impressed by the Game's legacy of promoting mass participation in sport.

"As part of the Games' rich heritage, public recognition of sport as not only a form of exercise, but also a means of achieving individual and social development has been raised since 2008," Yao told China Daily during the recent annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing.