Baron Davis and Jose Calderon have been in China for this past week, much like Shaq, as part of a Li Ning sponsored tour. The two spent a day in Shanghai visiting the Li Ning flagship store in Nanjing East Road – a busy shopping street in the heart of town.

The two met fans and witnessed some traditional Chinese culture, as well as going head to head in the nation’s most close to heart sport, PingPong. Baron Davis wasted no time revealing his fun personality, hugging locals and apologizing to them after his poor ping pong play, dancing along to the Chinese music, and generally really comfortable with his surroundings. This wasn’t his first trip to China - he was here as part of the Yao Ming/Steve Nash charity basketball game 2 summers ago.

He said he really learned alot seeing the country first hand, and he says he plans to make a documentary with his own movie company regarding Sino-US basketball culture. He admitted that if he wasn’t working with Li Ning, his perspective of China would have been reduced to what he sees in the Hollywood movies. His documentary would be on the cultural bridge that basketball is helping form between China and the US.

Calderon meanwhile also has made a visit to China before, last year for the Beijing Summer Olympics where he played in the closely contested final against the US. Calderon was the better of the two ping pong players, and showed that he had played before. Upon asked about Yao Ming, he said he respects him highly and would of course like to play with him one day if that opportunity presents itself.

There was also talks throughout the day of Yao Ming’s injury, the technology inside the Li Ning shoes, and several interviews which I will post videos of later in the day.

For now check out some more pictures over at:  http://sports.sina.com.cn/nba/lining2009/index.shtml 

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