Yao Xia started his football career at Sichuan Quanxing and was part of the team that saw the club become a professional unit at the beginning of the 1994 Chinese football league season. He would rise to prominence at the end of the 1995 football league season when he played a large part in the fight against relegation for Sichuan Quanxing who survived on goal difference.[2] From then on Yao was part of Sichuan's most successful team which came third in the 1999 top tier division, which also saw him score 11 goals and saw him personally some third within the goal scoring charts.[3] The following season saw Sichuan once again finish third within the 2000 league season, however by 2002 Sichuan went through a disruptive ownership dispute and Yao Xia decided to leave at the end of the league campaign.[4]