On January 21, Cristiano Ronald and his Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr arrived in Shenzhen, China, to begin his eighth visit to the country. Ronaldo will lead his team to compete with Shanghai Shenhua at the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre on January 24, and then Zhejiang FC on January 28.

On January 22, Ronaldo attended a welcome dinner for Al Nassr's Chinese tour. A photo of Ronaldo raising a cup with his teammates later went viral on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. The photo showed Ronaldo's table of guests raising their glasses in celebration, with some holding red wine glasses, while Ronaldo and others held a teacup-shaped vessel, rather than a traditional wine cup.

Later that night, the evening's host, Yao Annie, denied the rumors in a livestream, saying, "Ronaldo did not drink alcohol that night. He is drinking snow fungus desert soup. Professional athletes cannot drink alcohol before official matches."

According to the menu for the day, which was released by the media, one of the dishes was called "Sweet golden fungus soup, pear," which is similar in size to the teacup that Ronaldo was holding.

The dinner was attended by a number of celebrities. Notably, Ronaldo immediately recognized former Manchester United teammate Dong Fangzhuo. Video footage from the scene showed Ronaldo reaching out to Dong to shake his hand and greet him, with a smile on his face. The two exchanged a few words, looking very happy.

At the welcome dinner, Ronaldo sat with teammate Talisca, who previously played for Guangzhou Evergrande in the Chinese Super League and is familiar with the food there. From the footage, it can be seen that Ronaldo is also able to use chopsticks proficiently. He nodded frequently after taking a bite of food, apparently very satisfied.

According to reports, Ronaldo will attend a pre-match press conference for the Shanghai Shenhua match at around 6:30 p.m. local time today (January 23). Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., Ronaldo's Al Nassr will compete with Shanghai Shenhua in Shenzhen.