The China Open (also known as the Star Dragon Woods Villa Cup China Open for sponsorship purposes) is a professional snooker tournament. It is one of a number of ranking tournaments.
The event was revived for the 2004/05 season due to the increasing popularily of snooker in China. To this extent, an extra wildcard round was included before the first round proper to allow for sixteen of the top Chinese players to showcase their abilities. It was the first ranking tournament to be played in Asia for three years.
The tournament currently takes place at the Beijing University Students Gymnasium, Haidian District, Beijing in March. It is the last ranking event before the World Championship, although its qualifying tournament is held in December, before several others, due to the organisational logistics of players travelling outside Europe.
The China Open was also a ranking tournament between 1998/99 and 2001/02 after it had been an invitation event in 1997/98. It was known as the China International for three seasons before it changed its name to the China Open in 2000/01.
