diff --git a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
--- a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree.py
@@ -130,14 +130,13 @@
 def check_element(element):
     if not ET.iselement(element):
         print("not an element")
-    if not hasattr(element, "tag"):
-        print("no tag member")
-    if not hasattr(element, "attrib"):
-        print("no attrib member")
-    if not hasattr(element, "text"):
-        print("no text member")
-    if not hasattr(element, "tail"):
-        print("no tail member")
+
+    direlem = dir(element)
+    for attr in ('tag', 'attrib', 'text', 'tail'):
+        if not hasattr(element, attr):
+            print('no %s member' % attr)
+        if not attr in direlem:
+            print('no %s visible by dir' % attr)
 
     check_string(element.tag)
     check_mapping(element.attrib)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree_c.py b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree_c.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
--- a/Lib/test/test_xml_etree_c.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xml_etree_c.py
@@ -17,12 +17,6 @@
 
     Issue #6697.
 
-    >>> e = cElementTree.Element('a')
-    >>> getattr(e, '\uD800')           # doctest: +ELLIPSIS
-    Traceback (most recent call last):
-      ...
-    UnicodeEncodeError: ...
-
     >>> p = cElementTree.XMLParser()
     >>> p.version.split()[0]
     'Expat'
diff --git a/Modules/_elementtree.c b/Modules/_elementtree.c
--- a/Modules/_elementtree.c
+++ b/Modules/_elementtree.c
@@ -1476,85 +1476,89 @@
 };
 
 static PyObject*
-element_getattro(ElementObject* self, PyObject* nameobj)
+element_get__tag(ElementObject *self, void *closure)
 {
-    PyObject* res;
-    char *name = "";
-
-    if (PyUnicode_Check(nameobj))
-        name = _PyUnicode_AsString(nameobj);
-    
-    if (name == NULL)
-        return NULL;
-
-    /* handle common attributes first */
-    if (strcmp(name, "tag") == 0) {
-        res = self->tag;
-        Py_INCREF(res);
-        return res;
-    } else if (strcmp(name, "text") == 0) {
-        res = element_get_text(self);
-        Py_INCREF(res);
-        return res;
-    }
-
-    /* methods */
-    res = PyObject_GenericGetAttr((PyObject*) self, nameobj);
-    if (res)
-        return res;
-
-    /* less common attributes */
-    if (strcmp(name, "tail") == 0) {
-        PyErr_Clear();
-        res = element_get_tail(self);
-    } else if (strcmp(name, "attrib") == 0) {
-        PyErr_Clear();
-        if (!self->extra)
-            element_new_extra(self, NULL);
-        res = element_get_attrib(self);
-    }
-
-    if (!res)
-        return NULL;
-
+    PyObject *res = self->tag;
     Py_INCREF(res);
     return res;
 }
 
+static PyObject*
+element_get__text(ElementObject *self, void *closure)
+{
+    PyObject *res = element_get_text(self);
+    Py_INCREF(res);
+    return res;
+}
+
+static PyObject*
+element_get__tail(ElementObject *self, void *closure)
+{
+    PyObject *res = element_get_tail(self);
+    Py_INCREF(res);
+    return res;
+}
+
+static PyObject*
+element_get__attrib(ElementObject *self, void *closure)
+{
+    PyObject *res;
+
+    if (!self->extra)
+       element_new_extra(self, NULL);
+    res = element_get_attrib(self);
+    Py_INCREF(res);
+    return res;
+}
+
+/* macro for setter validation */
+#define _VALIDATE_ATTR_VALUE(V)                     \
+    if ((V) == NULL) {                              \
+        PyErr_SetString(                            \
+            PyExc_AttributeError,                   \
+            "can't delete element attribute");      \
+        return -1;                                  \
+    }
+
 static int
-element_setattr(ElementObject* self, const char* name, PyObject* value)
+element_set__tag(ElementObject *self, PyObject *value, void *closure)
 {
-    if (value == NULL) {
-        PyErr_SetString(
-            PyExc_AttributeError,
-            "can't delete element attributes"
-            );
-        return -1;
-    }
-
-    if (strcmp(name, "tag") == 0) {
-        Py_DECREF(self->tag);
-        self->tag = value;
-        Py_INCREF(self->tag);
-    } else if (strcmp(name, "text") == 0) {
-        Py_DECREF(JOIN_OBJ(self->text));
-        self->text = value;
-        Py_INCREF(self->text);
-    } else if (strcmp(name, "tail") == 0) {
-        Py_DECREF(JOIN_OBJ(self->tail));
-        self->tail = value;
-        Py_INCREF(self->tail);
-    } else if (strcmp(name, "attrib") == 0) {
-        if (!self->extra)
-            element_new_extra(self, NULL);
-        Py_DECREF(self->extra->attrib);
-        self->extra->attrib = value;
-        Py_INCREF(self->extra->attrib);
-    } else {
-        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_AttributeError, name);
-        return -1;
-    }
-
+    _VALIDATE_ATTR_VALUE(value);
+    Py_DECREF(self->tag);
+    self->tag = value;
+    Py_INCREF(self->tag);
+    return 0;
+}
+
+static int
+element_set__text(ElementObject *self, PyObject *value, void *closure)
+{
+    _VALIDATE_ATTR_VALUE(value);
+    Py_DECREF(JOIN_OBJ(self->text));
+    self->text = value;
+    Py_INCREF(self->text);
+    return 0;
+}
+
+static int
+element_set__tail(ElementObject *self, PyObject *value, void *closure)
+{
+    _VALIDATE_ATTR_VALUE(value);
+    Py_DECREF(JOIN_OBJ(self->tail));
+    self->tail = value;
+    Py_INCREF(self->tail);  
+    return 0;
+}
+
+static int
+element_set__attrib(ElementObject *self, PyObject *value, void *closure)
+{
+    _VALIDATE_ATTR_VALUE(value);
+    if (!self->extra)
+        element_new_extra(self, NULL);
+    Py_DECREF(self->extra->attrib);
+    self->extra->attrib = value;
+    Py_INCREF(self->extra->attrib);
     return 0;
 }
 
@@ -1574,6 +1578,28 @@
     (objobjargproc) element_ass_subscr,
 };
 
+static PyGetSetDef element_getsetlist[] = {
+    {"attrib", 
+        (getter)element_get__attrib,
+        (setter)element_set__attrib,
+        "A dictionary containing the element's attributes"},
+    {"tag",
+        (getter)element_get__tag,
+        (setter)element_set__tag,
+        "A string identifying what kind of data this element represents"},
+    {"text",
+        (getter)element_get__text,
+        (setter)element_set__text,
+        "The text attribute can be used to hold additional data associated "
+        "with the element"},
+    {"tail",
+        (getter)element_get__tail,
+        (setter)element_set__tail,
+        "The tail attribute can be used to hold additional data associated "
+        "with the element"},
+    {NULL},
+};
+
 static PyTypeObject Element_Type = {
     PyVarObject_HEAD_INIT(NULL, 0)
     "Element", sizeof(ElementObject), 0,
@@ -1581,7 +1607,7 @@
     (destructor)element_dealloc, /* tp_dealloc */
     0, /* tp_print */
     0, /* tp_getattr */
-    (setattrfunc)element_setattr, /* tp_setattr */
+    0, /* tp_setattr */
     0, /* tp_reserved */
     (reprfunc)element_repr, /* tp_repr */
     0, /* tp_as_number */
@@ -1590,7 +1616,7 @@
     0, /* tp_hash */
     0, /* tp_call */
     0, /* tp_str */
-    (getattrofunc)element_getattro, /* tp_getattro */
+    PyObject_GenericGetAttr, /* tp_getattro */
     0, /* tp_setattro */
     0, /* tp_as_buffer */
     Py_TPFLAGS_DEFAULT, /* tp_flags */
@@ -1603,6 +1629,7 @@
     0, /* tp_iternext */
     element_methods, /* tp_methods */
     0, /* tp_members */
+    element_getsetlist, /* tp_getset */
 };
 
 /* ==================================================================== */