LONDON, July 16 -- A group of students from a Chinese school will Wednesday rub shoulders with some of the golfing giants as they visit one of the world's greatest golf tournaments, the British Open.

It turned out to be perfect timing when the 30-strong group from the Taicang Experimental Middle School in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, arranged a cultural visit to their "sister city" in Wirral where this year's big golfing event is taking place.

Today marks the last day of practice for the golfers before the official start on Thursday. The students will be guests at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club at Hoylake, a northern England coastal town in Wirral.

Whether they get the chance to meet Wu Ashun, the professional Chinese golfer from Xiamen who has qualified for the Open, remains to be seen.

But they will get a close-up taste of an event expected to attract a worldwide audience of more than 500 million people over the four days of the contest.

Kevin Adderley, regeneration director at Wirral Council, said he was sure the trip to the golf course would be memorable for the young students from Taicang.

Earlier this year, the Taicang school signed a partnership agreement with one of the top schools in the area, University Academy Birkenhead.

The leader of Wirral Council Councillor Phil Davies on Wednesday received a good-luck message for the golf event from the Mayor of Taicang Du Xiaogang.

This Sunday, the final day of the Open, Davies will host a civic event at the Open, when the guests will include Chinese Consul General Dr Zhai Jixian and Deputy Consul General Zhou Haicheng.

With 250,000 spectators expected to visit Hoylake, the Open is estimated to generate 75 million pounds (128.6 million U.S. dollars) for the local economy.

Adderley said: "We are very proud in Wirral of our close links with Taicang. We are both important seaports. We are across the river from our close neighbor Liverpool, and in the same way Taicang is a neighbor of Shanghai.

"Hosting one of the world's greatest sporting events in the golfing world gives us the perfect platform to show our friends in China and across the world what we have to offer as an investment area," he added.

"During the Open, we will be hosting corporate events to promote two of our main sectors, offshore wind and the automotive industry. We are in regular contact with our friends in Jiangsu Province about our proposed International Trade Centre which we hope will attract businesses from China to our area. A number of businesses in Suzhou have already expressed an interest in our developments in Wirral," he stated.