Stars of a Chinese television show with 500 million viewers are in Ireland learning how to hurl.

Singer / actor Wei Zhang, beauty queen Xiao Qi Mo and Taekwondo champion Lan Xin Zhang are amongst the eight stars of Exploration of the World who were at the Na Fianna grounds in Glasnevin on Monday to sample the clash of the ash for the first time.

Georgina Caraher from Experience Gaelic Games told The Irish Independent: "We were contacted last week by Failte Ireland to say the show was coming and they explained to us that it has over 500m viewers and that they wanted to do a piece on Gaelic games.

"We have over 60 crew and eight international Chinese stars who are taking up the challenge of learning Irish sports and also doing some Irish dancing and learning our traditional music. They're going to be in Ireland for more over a week and at the moment we're teaching them how to hurl.

"They're learning how to roll lift, jab lift and they've been trying to strike the sliotar with mixed success but at the end of the sessions we'll have them pucking it over the bar and scoring no bother.

"But it's going to be brilliant exposure for Irish sports as they're not known across the world - it will show Ireland in a positive light."

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