History
The first international snooker tournament in China was the China International in September 1997, a non-ranking tournament for the top 16 players and local players. The following season the tournament became ranking and was held in March. Then the name of the event was changed to China Open and was held in December, so there were two events in 1999. After the 2001 tournament the event was abandoned.
The event was revived for the 2004/05 season. Local wild-card players were invited to play against the qualifiers. The three Chinese players on the tour were invited to play as wild-cards, rather than qualify the usual way. Ding Junhui was one of them, and he won the tournament, but as he entered as a wild-card, he didn't get the prize money nor ranking points.
The tournament currently takes place at the Beijing University Students Gymnasium, Haidian District, Beijing in late March and early April. It is the last ranking event before the World Championship.
Read more about this topic: China Open (snooker)
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