Yao Ming Weds in Private Ceremony
August 6, 2007 – 7:56 pmNBA star center Yao Ming married his long-term girlfriend Ye Li in their hometown of Shanghai on Monday.
A minimal wedding ceremony was held in the five-star Shangri-La Hotel in Shanghai, with only some 70 family members and relatives in attendance, according to Zhang Chi, press representative for Team Yao, which manages Yao’s career.
NBA star Yao Ming and his fiance Ye Li pose in their official wedding portrait in Hangzhou, China in this photo released August 6, 2007. Yao married Ye at a jealously guarded private ceremony at a luxury hotel in Shanghai on Monday. (China Daily)
The ceremony, which lasted three hours, included an exchange of rings, an offering of tea and flowers to their parents to express gratitude, and sharing of a wedding cake, according to Zhang.
About 100 security guards worked for the nuptial in which only 10 dinner tables were arranged, each costing 12,300 yuan (US$1,618), local media reported.
Yao, the 27-year-old, 2.26-meter-tall Houston Rockets star, and his bride Ye, a 26-year-old, 1.9-meter-tall player on China’s national women’s basketball team, received their official marriage certificate in Shanghai’s Xuhui District on Friday.
On July 31, the couple was spotted near Taihu Lake in Lin’an, east China’s Zhejiang Province, taking wedding photos.
According to Yao’ autobiography, Yao: A Life in Two Worlds, he met Ye in 1999, when he was playing for the Shanghai Sharks. Their romance went public when the two were seen walking hand-in-hand at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Yao will fly to Beijing Tuesday to attend celebrations for the one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympics on August 8, Zhang said.
Reporters from home and abroad gather at the wedding ceremony of China’s basketball sensation Yao Ming and his long-time girlfriend Ye Li at a hotel in Shanghai August 6, 2007.
Friends and relatives of China’s basketball sensation Yao Ming and his long-time girlfriend Ye Li attend their wedding at a hotel in Shanghai August 6, 2007
Attendees undergo tight secuity check during the wedding ceremony of China’s basketball sensation Yao Ming and his long-time girlfriend Ye Li at a hotel in Shanghai August 6, 2007
Photographers take pictures during the wedding ceremony of China’s basketball sensation Yao Ming and his long-time girlfriend Ye Li at a hotel in Shanghai August 6, 2007
Two visitors pose for a photo in front of the wax figure of Yao Ming in a tuxedo which made debut at Madam Tussauds’ Wax Museum on Nanjing Road, east China’s Shanghai Municipality on August 6, 2007
One Response to “Yao Ming Weds in Private Ceremony”
Yao Ming as happy as a lark
By Andrew on Aug 7, 2007