SHANGHAI, Sept. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- China's NBA star Yao Ming and Olympic hurdles champion Liu Xiang were named Goodwill Ambassadors for Shanghai here on Monday, getting promotional jobs to do outside of their own sports.

    The two Shanghai-born sports stars will use their high profiles in the world to promote the city of Shanghai by attending various kinds of promotional activities in the following two years on condition that their sports duties would not be distracted.

    It was Yao's second term as Shanghai's Goodwill Ambassador, a role he started to take after China was hit by the SARS virus in June 2003.

    "Shanghai's future is full of hopes and challenges, which is the same case with me," said Yao after receiving the appointment certificate from Shanghai mayor Han Zheng.

    Liu, who won a historic gold medal for China in men's 110 hurdles in last year's Athens Olympics, promised to win a gold medal for Shanghai in the upcoming Tenth National Games, to be held in Jiangsu Province, east of China, next month.

    "The first thing I will do after becoming the Goodwill Ambassador is to win a gold medal for Shanghai at next month's National Games," he said.

    Starting in June 2003, Shanghai name no more than two Goodwill Ambassadors for every two years. Enditem