I'm not sure if anyone here has wrote about this topic, but to many peole on this site think that $75,000, the amount Ming is making in China, is not that much money. To put the dollar amount in perspective, I was talking to one of my friends who does business in China and he tells me that if you were a waiter at a restaurant and worked 12 hour days for 7 days a week, you would probably make about $100-130 a MONTH. I know this small amount seems like drops in the bucket in US standards, but this is actually a decent amount of money in China. Also, if any of you are thinking about going on a vacation, instead of going to europe where you may get car bombed, if you brought $1000 with you to China and stay there for a month, you would be able to travel and live like a king or queen for the month that you are there. The bottom line is that the China's money value is pale in comparison to the US dollar. The $75,000 that Ming makes in China can be translated as Ming making about $2 million US dollars. Thus, in actuality, the $75,000 that Ming earns is comparatively more than what most people think.
I also forgot to mention that since the Chinese government is going to receive half of Ming's earnings, which is about $2 million US dollars, the government has also come into some good fortune with having people like Ming under Chinese rule. Think about the $2 million dollars converted to Chinese currency and what the Chinese government can do with that money. This gives the Chinese government more incentive to train youngsters to become top level talent because the Chinese government is the entity that is really reaping the benefits of their children when playing in major professional leagues such as the NBA. I guess the next kid from China that even has a chance to play in the NBA is a 16 year old kid who is about 6'10" and of course, has a very good outside shot. I don't know the name of the kid, but he was playing in this summer's Addidas Big Time camp in indianapolis. From what they say, this kid should be better than Ming or Zhi Zhi because he's getting a lot more US basketball exposure than the former players. If this kid ever makes it to the NBA, China will once again, win the lottery financially.
It really depends where you wanna go for vacation. Big cities like Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing have high living standards and for a tourist, your hotel cost would be more than $1000. However, if you go to some small towns and villages then you could have a reasonable vacation with $1000. Believe me, China is not counting on the money from Chinese NBA players to pay for the development of their young bball players. A couple million of dollars is nothing compared to what the Ministry of Sports spend on the development of sports in China.
