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Tuesday January 5th, 2010

ULM TRAVELS TO CHINA!

RATIOPHARM ULM TO PLAY TWO EXHIBITION GAMES IN CHINA!

Working together for five months in the 2009-2010, ratiopharm Ulm will travel to the far east taking their game to China for two exciting exhibition games against Beijing Aoshen Olympians as part of a tour January 13th through 18th.  More than a road trip, ratiopharm Ulm will use the time together for team-building along with the fantastic shared life experience for the team. 

ratiopharm Ulm makes a mid-season team-building trip far east to Chengdu China January 13th through 18th including two exhibition games against the Beijing Aoshen Olympians. 

Playing a Christmas game for the first time since returning to the Bundesliga, the Ulm team was unable to return home for the recent holidays.  The busy game schedule saw an opening when brose Baskets Bamberg moved their home game against Ulm scheduled for January 16th to November at JAKO Arena.  Ulm's window of opportunity to participate in the tournament opened with the schedule change by Bamberg.  Making the five day trip to the far east, ratiopharm Ulm will also have time to rest and recover after the experience in China --- the weekend following Ulm's return, the Bundesliga All Star Game is scheduled for Saturday January 23rd at Telekom Dome in Bonn.  After the home game against MBC Saturday night, Ulm's next Bundesliga game will be a home game against Hagen on January 30th at Sportszentrum Kuhberg in Ulm. 

ratiopharm Ulm will play the Bejing Olympians on Saturday January 16th, 2010 at 3pm and Sunday January 17th at 3pm. Both games will be played in the arena of Chengdu Sports Institute which features a seating capicity of 1,400. Saturday's ratiopharm Ulm-Bejing Olympians game will be televised nationwide via Gansu TV. Earlier this season, the Bakken Bears from Denmark and Decin of the Czech Republic took part on the tour to China and enjoyed the experience.  ratiopharm Ulm looks forward to a terrific team-building international basketball experience on the floor and positive life-experience in China. 

About the tournament

The Chengdu International Invitational is an official basketball event sponsored by the Chinese Basketball Association and organized by Chengdu Sports Bureau and Beijing Aoshen Professional Basketball Club. The tournament will be held from November 28, 2009 to April 18, 2010 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China.  There will be 18 teams from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Iceland, Portugal, Hungary, the Czech Rep. as well as the United States to be invited to the series. Every visiting team will play against the Beijing Aoshen team for two consecutive games on Saturday and Sunday.
The goal of this event is to showcase high level basketball from various countries to the audience in China, where basketball is becoming the most popular sports for young people.  It will also serve as a fundraiser to help victims of the Sichuan Earthquake 2008 which devastated a large area nearby Chengdu, killing over 80,000 people and leaving 4 million people homeless. All revenues from the tournament will be donated to China Red Cross Foundation.

West Pearl Tower, Chengdu China

About the Chengdu region (cited from wikipedia.org)

click here for information on chengdu on wikipedia
Chengdu, located in southwest People's Republic of China, is the capital of Sichuan province. Chengdu is also one of the most important economic centers, transportation and communication hubs in Southwestern China. According to the 2007 Public Appraisal for Best Chinese Cities for Investment, Chengdu was chosen as one of the top ten cities to invest in out of a total of 280 urban centers in China.

More than four thousand years ago, the prehistorical Bronze Age culture of Jinsha established itself in this region. The fertile Chengdu Plain, on which Chengdu is located, is called Tianfuzhi guo in Chinese, which literally means "the country of heaven", or more often seen translated as "the Land of Abundance". It was recently named China's 4th-most livable city by China Daily.

Chengdu at night

Today the industrial base is very broad, including light and heavy manufacturing, aluminum smelting and chemicals. The textile industry remains important, with cotton and wool milling added to the traditional manufacturing of silk brocade and satin.
On May 12, 2008, a 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck causing damage to the area, killing about 80,000 people and injuring 26,413 in the area as of May 24, 2008. 4,021 of the casualties and most of the property damage were from Dujiangyan and Pengzhou, two suburban cities of Chengdu. While 75 kilometers (48 miles) from the epicenter, the urban area did not suffer any discernible damage.

The weather in Chengdu is usually cloudy or rainy during this season with temperature of 6-10 degree.

BEIJING AOSHEN OLYMPIANS
Founded in 1997, Beijing Aoshen Olympians pursuit a goal of professional basketball club with pure private ownership. To make themselves a first-class professional basketball team, Beijing Aoshen Olympians adhere to recruit Chinese youngsters being gifted unusual talent. To bring up those young talents, Beijing Aoshen Olympians employ excellent coaches from basketball big powers such as USA, former Yugoslavia, South Korea etc.. Beijing Aoshen Olympians once topped the "Asian Club Championships", the highest honor for Asian men's basketball in 1998. Between 1998 and 2004, Beijing Aoshen Olympians was regarded as a strong team in China Basketball Association. In order to improve the team's level and prepare for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, they migrated from CBA to ABA in the United States. The average height of the current team is 6'9". Some outstanding players, such as Sun Yue, Huang Haibei, Zhang Songtao, Huo Nan and Li Wei, have been selec ted into the Chinese national team. Also, these starlets have drawn NBA's attention. In the NBA Draft 2007, Sun Yue was drafted at overall 40th pick by Los Angeles Lakers.

click here for Eurobasket team page for Beijing Aoshen Olympians

Team Roster of Beijing Aoshen Olympians

With tremendous excitement and much anticipation, ratiopharm Ulm's road trip to China is right around the corner.  But the team travel plans include an impressive trek.

TRAVEL ITINERARY:
Departure:  Wednesday January 13th from Frankfurt 2:40pm
Arrival:   Thursday January 14th in Peking, China 7:20 am
Departure:  Thursday January 14th from Peking, China 11am
Arrival: Thursday January 14th in Chengdu 1:45pm

Rückreise
Departure:  Monday January 18th from Chengdu 8am
Arrival: Monday January 18th in Peking 10:20am
Departure: Monday January 18th from Peking 2:05am
Arrival: Monday January 18th in Frankfurt 3:20pm

ratiopharm Ulm's exciting basketball adventure to China continues the tradition of unique basketball experiences for the organization.  In 2003-2004, ratiopharm Ulm represented Basketball Travelers in a tour of NCAA colleges in the west coast including games against Arizona State, Pacific, Loyola Marymount, UCSantaBarbara and Pepperdine. 

While the trip will serve as a fantastic life experience, ratiopharm Ulm will take advantage of the opportunity to spend quality time together as a team.  Follow all the fast breaking ratiopharm Ulm baketball action all season long on Taylorhoops.com!

GO ULM!

MIKE T