Tang Yaodong began his football career playing for his hometown football club Liaoning FC's youth team and would later graduate to the senior team in the 1983 league season. After several seasons he would later rise to prominence when he would help them win the 1985 league title. This was to be the first of many trophies that were to follow and Tang Yaodong would play an integral part in a dominant Liaoning team that also saw them win the 1990 Asian Club Championship. Despite winning another league title he would transfer to a second tier Japanese club Otsuka Pharmaceutical in the 1992 league season. After only one season with them he would return to Liaoning FC until he retired.
International career
Tang Yaodong would make his senior debut in a friendly against Korea DPR on August 24, 1986 in a 0-0 draw. Under head coachGao Fengwen he would quickly become an integral member of the Chinese team and score his first goal against Singapore in a friendly on September 1, 1986 in a 3-0 win. Tang played all three games for China at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea as they were eliminated in the first round. He appeared also in the 1988 AFC Asian Cup and help China come 4th within the tournament, however when China were unable to qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup Tang Yaodong's appearances became limited and effectively ended once Gao Fengwen left the Chinese team.
Management career
Liaoning Youth and Huludao Whowin
After he retired he would take the position of head coach for the Liaoning Youth team in 1996 until 2001 when the youth team were allowed to participate in the second tier of the league system in 2002 and renamed themselves Huludao Whowin. He was allowed to stay with the team throughout the 2002 league season to help the team in their transition within the professional league system and took them to a respectable 6th within the league. The 2003 league season would see the team sold off to SVT Group and move to Nanjing, Tang Yaodong did not follow them and remained with Liaoning FC where he was offered an assistant position within the team.
Liaoning FC
After spending a short period as an assistant he was promoted to head coach after Liaoning's poor start to the 2005 Chinese Super League season. In his first season at Liaoning he was unable to achieve much success except to stabilize the club and lead them to midtable in his first attempt at managing a top-flight team. Liaoning's relatively poor performance even saw Tang Yaodong willing to step down before the beginning of the 2006 Chinese Super League season, however the club stood by him throughout the season even though results did not improve throughout the season. This would continue once more throughout the 2007 Chinese Super League season, however Liaoning lost patience at the end the season and with Tang Yaodong's contract up for renewal they decided not to renew it.
On January 7, 2008 new Head coach Jia Xiuquan brought in Tang Yaodong as his assistant for ambitious Chinese Super League club Henan Construction, however their reign was considered unsuccessful and Jia Xiuquan resigned on June 15 while Tang Yaodong left soon after. When Portuguese Head coach Acácio Casimiro was sacked during the 2008 league season Tang Yaodong was brought back into the club as a short term solution to help salvage the season. At the beginning of the 2009 league season he remained as their manager and surprisingly the team's form dramatically improved. His reign would see Henan achieve their best ever league position of third and he would personally win the Coach of the year award.
On 19 April 2012, Tang was appointed as the new manager of China League One side Chongqing Lifan, replacing Lawrie McKinna who was sacked from the club five days before.
Honours
Player
Chinese Jia-A League: 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991
