To say the Shanghai-born, American-raised Beijing personality Ai Wan has had an eclectic career would be an understatement. Once named “world most exotic beauty” by American Playboy magazine, Ai Wan opened one of Beijing’s best-known nightclubs, ChinaDoll, back in 2006, and writes a regular column on the capital’s clubbing culture for Modern Weekly. She has also appeared in a raft of films, including Rush Hour and Zhang Ziyi's comedy Sophie’s Revenge, and produced the controversial Chinese documentary Yasukuni, which screened at the Berlin Film Festival in 2008. On the eve of her hosting of the Beijinger's 2010 Reader Restaurant Awards, we caught up with Ai Wan to find out what she has been up to recently.

Remember Mohamed Kallon? The former Inter Milan star was banned for eight months in 2003 for testing positive for Nandrolone and then ended up setting up his own club back in his native Sierra Leone. Well Mr. Kallon no longer plays for the egotistically named Kallon FC, no, he’s back in the big time … at Shaanxi Neo-China Chanba. Joking aside, Kallon was one of the brightest talents in the world game and at 30 years-old his signing has placed Shaanxi as favourites for the CSL title. Bad luck for Beijing’s hopes of retaining the trophy.

The Olympics in Winter? How do they do the diving events? Absolute madness if you ask me. It turns out that the Winter Games concentrate on more traditional winter sports like shooting things while out skiing and going headfirst down hills. For those who this is all news to here is what happened in Vancouver.

This is it: the marquee event of the XXI Winter Olympic Games has its marquee matchup on the final day of competition. (With all due respect to the men’s 50 km cross-country skiing race, we’re not talking about that). By all indications, Canada vs. USA for men’s hockey gold at 12:15 p.m. Vancouver time, 4:15 a.m. (Monday morning) Beijing, will overshadow the closing ceremony. So why is this match important and where can we catch the action in Beijing?

The Winter Olympics is well underway. China’s been racking up the medals – providing that racking up suggests no more than five. Zhou Yang and Wang Meng blitzed the ladies short track speed skating in the 1500 and 500 meter categories respectively. Wang was disqualified in the Semi-final of the 500m. China’s other gold (or is that two) came from figure skating pair Zhao Hongbo and Shen Xue. The married skaters subsequently retired after reaching their career goal. This will give hope to the pair they beat into silver, Tong Jian and Pang Qing. Finally, third place on the podium was 500m speed skater Wang Beixing.

Before I met Ray Plummer, who manages the Beijing International Ice Hockey League, he sent me a one-line e-mail in response to coming to one of their games: “Drink lots of beer when watching.”

It all proved to be a step too far for Li Na and Zheng Jie at the Australian Open. Both fell at the Semi-final hurdle. Li Na went down fighting to eventual winner Serena Williams. Zheng Jie was overwhelmed by the resurgent Justine Henin in just 51 minutes – the fastest match of the tournament.

Another outdoor ice rink has been added to Beijing’s ever-growing collection of winter playgrounds. Conveniently located at Workers' Stadium East Gate, the 1,248 sq meter open air facility is open daily until 10pm.

Chinese tennis poster girl Zheng Jie has hammered her way through to a Semi-Final against Justin Henin in the Australian Open in Melbourne. Her opponent in the Quarter-Final was the also unseeded Maria Kirilenko. She saw off the Russian in two sets – 6-1 and 6-3. Zheng had beaten the Muscovite in four of their previous five matches. If I were a gambling man, and in a country that did not rightly forbid such a pursuit, I would say the odds favored the Chengdu native from the start. In any case, Zheng is set to do nicely for making it this far, winning AUD 400,000 (around RMB 2.5 million) for being a semi-finalist.

The biggest news of the week is that Stephon Marbury is signing for the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons, the CBA’s finest team named after a dragon. Marbury has apparently decided to move to China to reignite his flagging career. Marbury deserved the nickname Starbury in his earlier years as he racked up two All Star appearances. Since then he’s become a champion of the poor with his Starbury brand of affordable footwear, sports apparel and lifestyle clothing. Word on the street, as scared kids are calling the internet, is that his move to the East is in a bid to sell more of his shoes. Fake Jordans or real Starburys? That’s for the kids to decide.