Ulster University's GAA team yesterday set out on a two-week cultural exchange tour of China.
The trip will see a 35-strong team fly out to develop and enhance links with Chinese academic institutions.
The team will travel to Beijing, Wuhan, and Huangshi City and play several games as part of an extensive tour promoting sporting excellence at UU and gaelic games in particular.
Professor Ian Montgomery, UU Pro-Vice Chancellor for Global Engagement, said GAA was "of increasing interest to the Chinese people".
The tour, he said, would give the team the opportunity to showcase Gaelic football and hurling to a vast audience.
"There is a strong appetite to learn about the various sports, key tactics and the strong cultural identity which Ulster University's GAA team has developed over many decades," he said.
"As an internationally focused university it is important to continually build new partnerships in this vast market and further enhance existing linkages.
"From research collaborations with some of China's top universities to our role as home to the Confucius Institute and Confucius classrooms initiative in Northern Ireland, China remains a significant market with clear potential for growth."
