From the 21st – 25th October, we were performing in and around the smaller city of Hangzhou, located south of Shanghai in east China's Zhejiang province. The main attraction during our stay in Hangzhou was the West Lake Carnival, the second largest carnival of its kind in China.

Friday 21st October

We arrived at our new abode, the Haijing Hotel to the east of the city, at around dinner time. After a good feed, most of the band enjoyed a quiet evening with a few beers in the hotel bar. Both the Swiss and the German groups had also travelled down from Shanghai but we were spread across two hotels, having been joined by another German carnival group from Stuttgart, a French dance troupe from Perpignan and a Brazilian samba troupe amongst others.

Saturday 22nd October

Everyone was up, fed and on the coach for 7am and we were taken downtown to our parade muster point. Although the parade didn’t actually start until 9:30am, the expected presence of 500,000 spectators along the 3.5km route meant that we had to be in place early to beat the crowds. Getting off the coach we were amazed to see the friendly faces of Bagad Kerlenn Pondi from Brittany, whom some of us had met at an Interceltique Festival in Avilés, Asturias, Spain in 2004! They were in China for ten days doing a similar circuit around the eastern provinces. Unfortunately, this was the only time we saw them, but hopefully we’ll bump into each other again soon!

The Carnival was divided into three sections. The first was the city fashion section, containing 15 performing teams such as cartoon characters, street skating, fashionable street dance and colourful fantasy floats. The second was the folk art section which represented the dances and traditions of some of the various regions within China, and the third section was the international section, with about ten performing groups from countries such as Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland and of course Scotland. The parade began in front of the Zhejiang People’s Hall and moved through the city centre, along the eastern edge of the West Lake and finished at the first gate of Liulangwenying. Dignitaries from the provincial and Hangzhou governments attended the opening ceremony before watching the various floats, troupes

and bands head off into the distance. 500,000 spectators is a lot of people and even spread over 3.5km, the crowds never thinned to anything less than six deep. People clapped and cheered as we passed, shouting ‘Hello’ and although we had grown used to being the centre of attention in Shanghai, the sheer size and enthusiasm of these crowds was overwhelming.

In the afternoon we rested and took a boat trip on the West Lake with the other groups. Tranquil and serene, this was quite a change from earlier in the day and as we drifted along we all relaxed and enjoyed a few tunes courtesy of Murray.

Sadly, this was the Swiss group’s last day before they headed home. Having grown very fond of them a farewell party was organised at their hotel. Over several beers and whiskies, tunes were played, songs sung and gifts exchanged and we look forward to seeing our good friends again in the not too distant future!

Sunday 23rd October

Today the Band was up early and off to the West City Plaza for a short performance in front of about 1,000 people. It was noticeably colder and most of us were a little tired and battle-weary; a week of travelling and performing and all the drinking to go with it was starting to take its toll!

The afternoon was free, so most of us headed out of the city to visit the Lingyin Temple, tucked away in the hills to the west of the Lake. Lingyin Temple, commonly translated as "Temple of the Soul's Retreat", is one of the largest and wealthiest Buddhist temples in China. Originally constructed around 326AD, the temple was the birthplace of Buddhism in Hangzhou. It has been rebuilt no less than sixteen times since then and currently houses a remarkable collection of wooden Buddhist statues and sculptures. The hillside to the south of the temple is well-known for its Buddhist rock carvings, many of which date back to the time when the temple was first founded and include the famous Laughing Buddha.

In the evening we headed back into the city centre to visit the Night Market – a vivid and colourful bazaar selling everything from curios and supposed antiques, to silk scarves and bags and even locusts and centipedes deep-fried on sticks. Mmmm, a cornucopia of goodies indeed!

Monday 24th October

This was our last day performing in China. At 8am we set out for the ancient Longmen Town situated to the south-west of Fuyang City which itself lies a good hour’s drive south-west of Hangzhou. The journey gave us a chance to see some of the countryside around Hangzhou which is a strange mix of heavy industry, large waterways and beautiful sweeping hills. Once at Longmen Town we performed for 20 minutes in the town’s central square along with the other European groups. Afterwards, we all watched some Chinese theatre performed from the gallery of a timber pavilion during which a traditional wedding play was acted out. This event required some audience participation as a ball of cloth was tossed into the sea of assembled European bachelors; whoever caught the bundle became a suitor for the pretty young Chinese bride. It would appear that it was the Pipe Major’s prerogative to develop international relationships that day! As the successful bachelor he was taken upstairs to the gallery, dressed in stage costume and participated in a brief but meaningful marriage ceremony in front of the assembled witnesses!

After the celebrations, we were taken on a sightseeing tour of this ancient village before heading off into the local foothills for an excellent meal at a countryside restaurant before returning to Hangzhou. Once back at the hotel there was just time left for some last-minute souvenir shopping before an official banquet with the local Minister of Culture as special guest. After the meal, because it was both the Germans’ and our last night in China, we commandeered the hotel restaurant and, with the help of the French and the second German group, partied into the wee small hours. More gifts were exchanged, toasts made and songs sung before we rounded the night off with another energetic ceilidh.

Tuesday 25th October

If you had encountered the Band as they departed from the hotel at 5:00am to drive to Pudong Airport in Shanghai you would not have seen us at our best! Whilst the majority had managed to get a few hours sleep and didn’t look anything worse than bleary-eyed and grumpy, those who had disregarded sleep in favour of staying up all night drinking with the other groups staggered around in mild confusion as they tried to drag cases and bags down to the bus and locate that missing room key!

Once we were all safely aboard we whizzed north to the airport, arriving a canny four hours before the flight was due to board! Luckily, this gave those of us in good form the opportunity to travel on the Maglev, the world’s fastest train, from the airport to the centre of Shanghai and back again. Thus, a 90km round trip took only 16 minutes travelling at a peak speed of 430km/h.

It was then time to say goodbye to our guides, Liuliu, Phoenix and the festival director, before checking in, boarding our flight and settling down for the long haul back to reality. After a smooth journey we arrived just after midnight at a deserted Edinburgh airport and headed our separate ways, both happy and amazed at how cool an experience we’d had whilst also sad that the trip was finally over.

Our thanks go to our main guide, Liuliu, and also to Phoenix who travelled down from Shanghai to help out during our stay in Hangzhou. Thanks also to Cathy, whose patience was tried on numerous occasions as we persisted in playing for longer than the allocated timescale and who generally reined us in from getting up to too much mischief and ensured we were in the right place at the right time!!