Ding Junhui plays with a ball during his exclusive interview with the China Daily in Beijing on May 5. The snooker star is enjoying a holiday after ending the season as the world No 4. Cui Meng / China Daily

While some Chinese fans are still lamenting Ding Junhui's narrow loss to Judd Trump in the semifinals of the recent World Snooker Championship, 24-year-old Ding is relishing a well-deserved holiday after an arduous season which saw his ranking climb to a career-high world No 4.

After losing in his first appearance in a Worlds semifinal, 17-15, Ding didn't hang around to watch the final between Englishman Trump and eventual champion Scotland's John Higgins, instead, he invited a bunch of friends and some Chinese reporters to his home, in Queen's Tower in Sheffield, for a barbecue.

However, it took quite a while for his official holiday to start as he was besieged by media immediately after arriving at the Beijing Capital International Airport last Wednesday.

Then, on Thursday, he sat down for an exclusive interview with China Daily after chatting with online fans at Sohu.com. Though still adjusting to the time difference, Ding, wearing a spotted T-shirt, jeans and a pair of blue Nike shoes, appeared relaxed and open.

"Now I am still a little tired. I will take a trip for about two weeks," said Ding, claiming he has no concrete plans about where to go just yet, although he has been to Maldives and considers it the most beautiful place he has visited as "the island was quiet and fun".

It is quite a different scenario from the years when he started off based in England in 2003. He also flew back to China after the snooker eason, but never stopped training.

"I won the national championship but being the domestic No 1 turned out to be little more than a minnow in the UK. So there was no way for me to put aside the cue during the off-season, I had to catch up," he said.

"I also played much fewer matches, notching only six or seven wins a year. Now I play more than 40 matches a year, so I have to rest myself whenever there is a chance," said Ding, who joked he almost fell asleep during the best-of-33 semi.

However, after his coming trip to destinations unknown, Ding will have another challenge before the next season cues off in July. He will try to catch up on his studies at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

He enrolled at the school of Economics and Management as a business administration major in 2007, but has studied there for less than half a year due to his tight snooker schedule. A dropout in junior high school as his father backed his future in snooker, Ding says the course is interesting and quite helpful in regards to "time management", but also admits he has "no feel for business yet" and has little business acumen.