MELBOURNE is set to depart on its 14-day tour to China from Sunday October 10 to Saturday 23.

The touring party includes 130 people - believed to be the biggest trip ever conducted by an AFL club.

On Sunday, October 17, Melbourne will play Brisbane Lions in ‘The Kaspersky Cup Shanghai Showdown’. The match will start at 2.15pm (local time).

It will be played at Jiangwan Stadium.

Melbourne’s key destinations include Moganshan, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.

Club chief executive Cameron Schwab said the tour will be a pivotal moment for Melbourne.

“Our game is about moments,” he said.

“The most important moments however, are far more personal. The lessons learnt that equip you for life, the times shared and friendships forged that mean so much more than people simply playing and working together.

“The deeper the experiences the stronger the friendships and the better we become, enabling us to deal with whatever this game throws at us. This is the essence of this journey.

“Our time in China is about growing and building trust. The key to any form of development is openness - which in itself is a learned skill and is one of the key outcomes we are seeking from our time away.

“The timing could not be better. The core of this group will be together for at least the next ten years.

“Our future together, representing a tradition that is as old as the game itself, in one of the oldest cultures in the world. It is indeed, one of those moments.”