NBA All-Star Yao Ming listened to Chinese children orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic tell their stories here Sunday. Clearly moved, the basketball star said he wished to invite the kids to watch the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

"I saw a boy wearing clothes with the Beijing Olympic Games logo. I hope to invite them to watch the event in 2008," the Huston Rockets center said when visiting a group of 30 children eastChina's Anhui Province.

Yao wiped off Xiao Ding's tears when the 14-year-old kid cried that nobody dared to play with him when his parents were found to have been infected with HIV when they illegally sold blood.

Cared for by the Fuyang City's poor HIV/AIDS children assistance association, most of the 30 kids were orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and some of them are even infected with the killer disease.

Yao's presence brought great joy to these poor children. "I'm very happy," repeated Xiao Yun. "I've seen him on TV, but I never thought I would really see him in person. I can't remember what he told me, but I'm just so happy. He's so tall."

The 2.29-meter (7 feet 6 inches) center, crouching to listen to the kids, said he felt the kids are "great" as "they are full of hope for life and long for a new life even under such circumstances".

He was greeted with many small presents from the kids, mostly small paper-folded creatures, seen as a sign by Yao of the kids' fearless attitude toward life.

"So we have to help them, spiritually or materially," the basketball player pledged.

Yao joined the world anti-AIDS campaign last year when he and Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson starred in advertisements calling on people to end discrimination against those with HIV-AIDS and to attend to the AIDS issue.

He returned to China last week to take part in an NBA "Basketball Without Borders" event and to join the national team for the Stankovic Continental Champions Cup that begins on July 26 in Beijing.

Source: Xinhua