China’s NBA star center Yao Ming tied the knot with his long-term girlfriend Ye Li in a low-key wedding ceremony this month.

A private wedding banquet for the couple of eight years was held in the city’s five-star Shangri-La Hotel.

The evening was shrouded in secrecy until dozens of foreign and domestic media camped outside the glitzy hotel for a glance at the happy couple.

In what was a relatively small affair for a star of gigantic proportions, a limited number of family and friends were invited to dine at eight exclusive tables for the wedding banquet on the third floor of the hotel.

A custom-designed heart-shaped logo, with two “Y”s printed in the middle, was hung from a white curtain in the front of two banquet halls, joined and decorated in a traditional manner.

Yao booked the most expensive meal set priced at over $1,700.00 per table, according to a hotel source, close to the wedding reception.

The lavish menu included sea cucumber, sea-ear and fresh red garoupa.

Both newlyweds are incredibly tall. Yao, at 2.26 metres, towers over his new bride, also a player in the national woman’s basketball team, at 1.9 metres tall.

Yao, 27, and his wife, 25, are both from Shanghai.

The Houston Rockets’ All-Star centre reportedly met his sweetheart in 1999 when he was playing for the Shanghai Sharks, a local basketball team.

Their relationship, however, was only made public at the 2004 Athens Olympics where they were seen walking hand-in-hand at the closing ceremony of the games.

The couple signed their marriage certificate in Xuhui District Marriage Registration Office, where officials worked late until 8pm that day for the couple’s convenience.