China's greatest sports heroes

At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Li Ning awes crowds by igniting the opening ceremony cauldron from high in the air after "running" around the top of the Olympic stadium.

Shanghai Sharks alum Yao Ming is not only one of China' best-known exports, he's also the tallest player in the NBA.

Yao Ming (姚明): Basketball Star

We have to start with the obvious. China’s most recognizable export has recently been plagued by injury, but the 2.29m (7ft 6in) giant is still widely regarded as one of the NBA’s elite centers when healthy. A three-time Olympian, seven-time NBA All-Star and the first-ever foreign-born top pick in the NBA, Yao made US$51 million in 2008 and has led Forbes’ Chinese celebrities list in income and popularity for six straight years.

Li Ning (李宁): Olympian Gymnast

Li burst into the international spotlight by winning six medals (including three golds) and topping the individual medal count at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics -- China’s first appearance at a Summer Games after a 32-year boycott. However, he’s now probably best known as the founder of China’s biggest sportswear company (Li Ning) and for his high-flying, cauldron-lighting appearance at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Liu Xiang (刘翔): Olympian Hurdler

The 2007 world champion 110m hurdler is the first Asian gold-medalist in any Olympic track and field event. He won his event at the 2004 Athens Games with a world-record time of 12.91 seconds, but was forced to pull out of the Beijing Olympics with an Achilles injury.

Lang Ping, former coach of the Chinese Women's Volleyball Team, is now head coach of the U.S Women's Volleyball Team.

Liu recently returned to competition with a second-place finish at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix and a first-place finish at the 2009 Asian Athletics Championships.

Lang Ping (郎平): Volleyball Olympian

Like Li Ning, the “Iron Hammer” built her international reputation by capturing gold at the 1984 Olympics. A star hitter on the women’s volleyball team, her squad was the first Chinese team to win multiple world championships in a major international sport. She eventually retired and turned to coaching, where she’s captured Olympic silver twice -- once with China in 1996 and again in 2008 with the US.

Wong Fei Hong (黃飛鴻): Wushu Grandmaster

A noted physician, Wushu grandmaster and Chinese folk hero, Wong’s exploits are the stuff of legend and the subject of countless films over the years, including Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master and Jet Li’s Once Upon a Time in China. Wong himself was an expert in the Hung Gar style of martial arts, and was so lethal that he once reputedly defeated 30 gangsters using only a staff.

Honorable mention: Zhuang Zedong (庄则栋)

Sun Wen (center) hands over the Women's World Cup 2007 jerseys to Team China.

A winner of three consecutive World Table Tennis Championships in the 1960s, Zhuang’s actually better known for his role in Ping Pong Diplomacy than his own table tennis skills. He kick-started the famous episode in Sino-U.S. relations by presenting American player Glenn Cowan with a silk portrait of the Huangshan Mountains, and was later chosen to lead the Chinese table tennis delegation on its 18-day tour of America in 1972.

Honorable mention: Sun Wen (孙雯)

China’s generally not known for soccer, but Sun is the exception to that rule. A National Team player by 17, she went on to lift her squad to a silver medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and won both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot award at the 1999 Women’s World Cup. On top of all that, she was voted FIFA’s Female Co-Player of the Century (with Michelle Akers) in 2002.