Chinese basketball star and Houston Rockets center Yao Ming (C) walks with AIDS orphans Ding Kaipeng (L) and Zhang Yun during an HIV/AIDS awareness event at the Tsinghua University in Beijing July 17, 2005. Yao returned to China this week to take part in the NBA outreach event. [Reuters]

The Houston Rockets' Yao Ming, helped by the ability of fans to cast votes on the NBA's multi-lingual website, received a record total of 2.56 million votes for the 54th All-Star Game.