On the evening of 25 November, BritCham Shanghai warmly welcomed a full house of guests and friends at Kerry Hotel Pudong Shanghai for its annual St. Andrew’s Ball 2023.
Special thanks must go to our Gold Sponsors Aston Martin, BE Education and Jaguar Land Rover, for their generous support in making this event possible. We would also like to extend our thanks to our Entertainment Sponsor Virgin Atlantic, Wine Sponsor Ray Fine Wines, Beverage Sponsor Diageo, and Beer Sponsors Guinness and BrewDog, for providing us all with a dram or a few that will ensure everyone enjoys the best o the night!
This year we were delighted to welcome back our old friend – Whisky Kiss, who performed live music and led the vibrant Ceilidh dances. The Ball also brought to the audience many authentic Scottish traditions, from Scotland’s cuisine to melodious bagpipes to the ‘Address to the Haggis’ performance.
“This is the first St. Andrew’s Ball in Shanghai that I join in my new role as Consul General,” said Matthew John Burney, CMG, His Majesty’s British Consul-General, Shanghai. “Recently I have been delighted to see so many friends from Scotland and across the UK travelling to China for various trade missions and collaborations. China is an exceptionally important market to the UK with opportunities for commercial trade and investment, as well as cultural exchanges, and this is one of the many reasons why I am so thrilled to be here. ”
This is also an evening we gather to support a good cause. A big thank-you to our guests and many in-kind sponsors for their contribution to raising funds for Hangzhou Para Blind Sports Club, established in 2018 with the mission of guiding visually impaired individuals in sports and developing and promoting sports accessible for the blind.
We were also delighted to meet athlete Cai Changgui, Gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games and Silver medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, to introduce social life and sports activities of blind people, and encourage guests to experience one of the programmes named “Showdown-to-all” on the evening as a special activity of the Ball this year.
A total of RMB 77,380 was raised on the night through silent auction and individual donations. Funds raised will be used to purchase two sets of Showdown sports equipment, which will be donated to the local blind community in Shanghai, and to organise various workshops and “sports together” activities that engage visually impaired individuals, students, parents, corporate employees, creating a more inclusive, barrier-free world.
To learn more about Hangzhou Para Blind Sports Club, please follow
