[1] It was the first staging of the tournament, and the plans were for it to become a full ranking event for the following three years, with the biggest prize pool for any event ever held outside the UK previously.

[2] John Higgins became the inaugural winner by beating Stuart Bingham 10–7 in the final.

The top 10 snooker players on the ranking list after the Shanghai Masters, along with the top 4 players on the one year prize money ranking list were invited to participate in the event.

[2][5] The remaining two players (Marco Fu and Liang Wenbo) were selected by the Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association.

[6] Mark Williams became eligible to participate after the withdrawal of world number 10 Ronnie O'Sullivan from the competition, as he was next in line to qualify through his official world ranking.