NBA star center Yao Ming is getting married to his long-time girlfriend Ye Li in their hometown of Shanghai on Monday.

A wedding ceremony will be held in the five-star Shangri-La Hotel, and only family members and relatives will be present; no teammates, coaches, or basketball officials are invited, 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, each costing 12,300 yuan (US$1,618), media reports said.

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.

The full dress wedding photos of Yao Ming and Ye Li

The  wax figure of Yao Ming in Shanghai Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum was redressed in formal clothing to celebrate his wedding.

The hall in the five-star Shangri-La Hotel in Shanghai where the wedding ceremony of Yao Ming and Ye Li to be held

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2007)