In part 1 of our video interview, Jason tells us the effect that Yao still has on the team even though he’s injured, how well he’ll be expected to fit into the offense the Rockets are running successfully this season, and more (apologies for the construction noises in the background in the first minute or two).

Thanks Jason!

I never thought the Rockets were going to be as bad as some people predicted this season, like Charles Barkley saying they were going to be the worst team in the Western Conference this season. But to beat Portland and Utah in consecutive games so early in the season, with 8 players scoring in double figures last night in Utah? I don’t think anyone could have predicted that.

Still, Barkley made himself look like an ass again. Remember when he said back in Yao’s rookie year that Yao would never score more than 19 points as a pro, and had to kiss a donkey’s butt on national TV after losing that bet?

This team continues to amaze us: the 22-game winning streak two seasons ago that had spans where either Yao or McGrady didn’t play. Two victories against the Lakers in the playoffs last season without Yao or McGrady playing. Chuck Hayes now as the starting center. A very short point guard in Aaron Brooks showing no signs of being handicapped because of his lack of height in the NBA. A free agent signee in Trevor Ariza, who no one thought would be this good this early, even his former team the Lakers. An “offensively-challenged” Shane Battier being more aggressive and amping up his offense. A rookie in Chase Budinger (17 points Monday night in 22 minutes) showing skills and maturity far beyond his middle-of-second round draft selection expectations. The list goes on and on.

You’ve got to these guys a ton of credit, including coach Rick Adelman. They were expected to be a shambles by now. They may still miss the playoffs when it’s all said and done, as everyone had predicted. Even without Yao, though, you can’t help but want to watch each one of their games to see what they will do next. And none is bigger than the Rockets’ next game on Wednesday: a rematch against the Lakers at Toyota Center. You can bet Ariza is going to be motivated for that game. Will he eclipse his career high point total (33) from Saturday night’s game against Portland? That’s going to be Must See TV.

Click here for more photos of Yao at the game.

YaoMania met briefly with Yao on Friday afternoon to get caught up on what he’s been doing lately.

He’s had his cast off for a few weeks now and said his foot feels good. As seen in the photos from Saturday night, Yao is wearing a black boot and brace when he goes out. He currently leaves home to workout 5 days a week at Toyota Center with his personal trainer Anthony Falsone in the mornings. Falsone will pick Yao up at his house since he can’t drive yet because of his foot.

Because Yao is so diligent in going to Toyota Center to work out early each morning, he wasn’t able to watch all of the Rockets’ first two road games because those games started so late on the West Coast, so he couldn’t really speak too much about the performance of the team at that time. But he said the excellent play of Chuck Hayes (who led the NBA in steals after two games) and Luis Scola’s game Wednesday night against Golden State (21 points) didn’t surprise him at all because he has seen how good those guys have been over the past few years.

We talked a little bit about the anti-smoking campaign in China with which he has aligned himself. He said no one in his immediate family has smoked because of their involvement in athletics all their lives, but he sees the effects of second-hand smoke in his country, and has a hard time dealing with it whenever he’s around second-hand smoke.

Yao vowed to keep YaoMania up-to-date on how things are going for him from this point forward, so make sure follow YaoMania on Twitter or Facebook.

They also interviewed his personal trainer Anthony Falsone. One of the big revelations that’s good news for Yao’s fans in China is that Falsone says that Yao will be able to go back to China in December.

Click here for some of the transcripts from the interviews with Yao and Anthony.

Click here to see more photos of Yao working out with his new boot.

But there’s some new nuggets of information in there that I didn’t even know, like how his first thing to drink as a baby was not breast milk, but a bowl of bitter soup of “Huang Lian,” which was a local custom to give children a better idea of what sweetness is later in life.

He also said he’s not an adventurer. For example, he always drives the same route to Toyota Center, and rarely takes chances in shooting the basketball in different ways for fear of picking up an offensive foul. But he is more independent than his parents, who grew up during a much different time in China’s culture.

Click here for the entire article.

It is estimated that about 350 million Chinese, or nearly 27 percent of the country’s total population, are consumers of one third of tobacco products around the world.

Each year about one million Chinese die from lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases that can be directly linked to tobacco use, according to the CATC.

Passive smoking, commonly known as secondhand smoke, also put the health of additional 540 million Chinese under threat, partly due to weak enforcement of smoking ban in public places.