Yao Ming was born on September 12, 1980. He grew up in a small apartment in Shanghai, China, with his parents. They were both basketball players, too and tall! Their son is 2.26 meter (7 feet 5 inches). Yao doesn't have any brothers or sisters. When he was about nine, he went to the Youth Sports School in Shanghai. In China, he played for the Shanghai Sharks.
In 2002, Yao moved to the United States to play professional basketball. He plays for the Houston Rockets. When Yao first moved to Houston, he lived with his mother. Yao's mother cooked Chinese food for him, did the laundry, and cleaned their four-bedroom house.