Mai Chao spent his whole playing career with Guangzhou Apollo as an attacking left-back and saw the team rise through the Chinese pyramid before being called up to the Chinese national team where he made his debut appearance against Italy in friendly on May 11, 1986, in a 2–0 defeat.
[2] Unfortunately he was part of the squad that narrowly missed out of reaching the FIFA World Cup after losing the final group game to Qatar in the dying minutes during qualification.
Mai ended his international career as the country's top goalscoring defender while also seeing Guangzhou move into full professionalism before he retired.
After retiring Mai moved into training and due to high regard within Guangzhou Apollo he rejoined them in 1997 as their new manager.
During this period he took on the training sessions and led the team out at the beginning of the 2008 Chinese Super League before his contract finished, and he left the club.