The first international snooker tournament in China was the
China Masters which has staged on three occasions in 1985, 1986 and 1996. The inaugural
1985 edition, held in
Guangzhou, was the first professional tournament to be played in China, and featured the two
1985 World Snooker Championship finalists
Steve Davis and
Dennis Taylor, with Davis winning the final 2–1. The following season Davis again won the competition, this time defeating
Terry Griffiths 3–0 in the final. A third tournament was held in
1996 for lower-ranked players;
Rod Lawler won this tournament defeating
Shokat Ali 6–3 in the final. The event rebranded as 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 2002 tournament the event was abandoned. The event was revived for the
2004-05 snooker 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 received no prize money nor ranking points. Rather than being played directly before the World Championship, it will be played in mid-August and will utilise a new format that directly copies the format of the ranking Triple Crown events, whereby the Top 16 will be seeded through to the venue and 144 players (which includes wildcards and other invited non-professional players) playing in qualifiers to reach the venue. ==Winners==