BEIJING - Tickets for NBA Global Games China 2014 presented by ZTE featuring the Brooklyn Nets and Sacramento Kings will go on sale on August 12 David Sharpe Jersey , it was announced today by NBA China, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Sports and AEG Live Asia.
For the first time, NBA China and its promoter, AEG Live Asia is partnering with WeChat to provide fans with a convenient platform to purchase tickets exclusively through NBA’s official WeChat account from August 12 to 18. In addition to WeChat, fans can purchase tickets from August 19 onwards through the Damai national call center (400 610 3721) and online at Damai.
The Kings and the Nets will play at the Mercedes-Benz Arena on October 12 at 12:30 PM and will meet again at the MasterCard Center in Beijing on October 15 at 7:00 PM.
The Nets' roster includes NBA Champion and 15-time NBA All-Star Kevin Garnett, 7-time NBA All-Star Joe Johnson and 3-time NBA All-Star Deron Williams. This will be the Nets second trip to China – the then New Jersey Nets played in Beijing and Guangzhou in 2010.
The Kings feature a talented young roster led by DeMarcus Cousins, Rudy Gay and Ben McLemore. This will be the second time the Kings will play a preseason games in China – the team played in Beijing and Shanghai in the inaugural China Games in 2004.
The games are two of five international preseason games the league will play in four countries this October as part its efforts to connect with its fans globally. In addition to the games held in China, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs will play a series of games in Brazil, Germany and Turkey.
NBA Global Games 2014 in China are authorized and supported by the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and co-hosted by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports and the Shanghai Administration of Sports. These games will mark the eighth edition of NBA preseason games in China.
In 2004, the NBA became the first American professional sports league to play games in China, with games between the Houston Rockets and the Sacramento Kings in Shanghai and Beijing. Since then, the league has hosted 16 games in China.
(Agencies)
by Ronald Ssekandi, Yuan Qing
NTOROKO, Uganda, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- This year has seen China pour huge financial resources in Uganda to help the East African country fast track its economic development.
Deep in rural Uganda, it is common to see Chinese engineers with their heavy earth moving equipment dig up roads or preparing to construct huge hydro power plants.
Far from the oil resource and trade, China is now targeting transport and energy infrastructure which according to economic experts are major bottlenecks to unlocking Uganda's economic potential.
In the outskirts of the capital Kampala, Chinese engineers are working with their local counterparts day and night to finish the construction of the country's first ever Expressway linking the capital Kampala to Entebbe International Airport, the country's main gateway to the rest of the world.
Using loans of 350 million U.S. dollars from China's Export and Import Bank, Uganda anticipates that the four carriage 37-km road will open new opportunities to the country striving to become a middle income country within the next decade.
According to the Chinese embassy in Uganda, the construction money is one of the biggest single soft loans that China has ever given to Uganda.
Construction of another major road linking the western Ugandan town of Fort Portal to Ntoroko, Bundibugyo and the Uganda-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border is near completion. The contractor Chongqing International Construction Corporation (CICO) said construction will be completed by the end of this year.
The Chinese constructed road with money from the Africa Development Bank traverses land with high potential for agricultural production and tourism.
The upgrading of the road to bitumen standard is considered to be important, not only in terms of completing the national paved road circuit, but also for international transit traffic to the DRC, in addition to providing another important access to Uganda's section of the great western rift valley.
"The visitors here will increase in number because some years ago this was a hard-to-reach area. It would take more than 10 hours to reach this site. Now that the road is good, it is now about one hour's drive from Fort Portal to here," said a tour guide at Semiliki National Park where the 103.6-km road traverse to the eastern DRC border.
These two roads are among the hosts of roads that are being constructed by Chinese firms. Apart from long term benefits of the roads to the country, the locals who participate in the construction have gained skills from their Chinese counterparts.
"Through training we have taught these people how to work. We are happy because a lot of people have improved. I hope Uganda and Chinese corporation will improve," said Yuliang Yu, CICO engineer.
Moving from the road sector, Chinese are also vying for the reconstruction of the country's railway system. Uganda relies on a dilapidated railway line to ferry some of its products from and to the Kenyan sea port of Mombasa. The proposed reconstruction of the railway will create a network linking Rwanda, Uganda, and South Sudan to Mombasa. The internal transport network would also be improved.
China or Chinese companies are venturing into construction of hydro power dams, another crucial sector in the economic development of a country.
Uganda lacks adequate electricity which forces manufacturers to rely on the expensive thermal generated electricity that pushes up the costs of production.