By Xinhua
Beijing : Basketball star Yao Ming is getting married to his long-term girlfriend Ye Li in their hometown Shanghai Monday.
A wedding ceremony will be held in the five-star Shangri-La Hotel in Shanghai, and only family members and relatives will be present, no team-mates, coaches or basketball officials, local media reported.
Yao and his agent have both turned off their mobile phones, but Xinhua’s Shanghai correspondent was told there would be an official announcement about the wedding later Monday night.
About 100 security guards will work for the nuptial in which only 10 dinner tables will be arranged with each costing 12,300 yuan ($1,618), media reports said.
Yao, the 27-year-old, 2.26-metre-tall star centre of the US National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Houston Rockets franchise, and his bride Ye, a 26-year-old, 1.9-metre-tall player on China’s national women’s basketball team, received their official marriage certificate in Shanghai’s Xuhui district Friday.