The China Championship will become a full ranking event for the first time this season and will now be the most lucrative tournament in Asia to win with an outstanding £200,000 pocketed by the eventual winner.
First held last year in Guangzhou as an invitational event which four time world champion John Higgins rolled back the years and produced some stunning snooker on route to a 10-7 success over Stuart Bingham.
This year all 128 players will have the chance to get their hands on Asia’s biggest prize and there will be no doubt plenty of pressure during the qualifiers in Preston starting next week.
Last years final was an absolute classic as the match swung both ways but Higgins went into century mode knocking in 3 stunning centuries in a row to wrestle the trophy away form Bingham and in the process engraving his name on the first China championship trophy.
Here is a lat years final in full to enjoy: