Shanghai Highland Games 2026 | NAIS Pudong

Pipes at one end of the field. A caber going end over end at the other. More than 700 people in between, on a Saturday in Pudong.

The Shanghai Highland Games came to Nord Anglia International School Shanghai, Pudong (NAIS Pudong) on Saturday 12 September 2026. Doors opened at 11:00. The closing ceremony began at 17:00. This is what happened in between.

The Games Opened the Way They Have Always Opened

At 13:00 the pipe parade came through, and the field went quiet for it.

Student pipers from NACIS marched with the competing pipers. His Majesty’s Consul-General in Shanghai, Matt Burney, gave a short address. Our Honorary Chieftain, Nick Watson, formally opened the Games.

Then the adult competitors were introduced, and the field got loud again.

Six Competitors. Multiple Feats of Strength. Two Hours.

Weights for distance. Tyre flip. Sheaf toss. Hammer throw. Caber toss. These are the events that built the Highland Games over centuries in Scotland, and they lose nothing in translation. Our families and guests around Shanghai watched from the edge of the field and the noise carried across the campus.

The Piping Was Real

Most visitors came for the heavy events. The Scottish foods. The live music. The pipers came for something else.

The solo piping competition ran to the National Piping Centre and CLASP format, the same graded structureused in Scotland. Students competed alongside a broader light-music and piobaireachd programme. Two judging areas ran concurrently. Visiting judges Margaret Houlihan and John Mulhearn marked the classes.  Competition ran across three sessions and more than four hours.

It Finished With a Ceilidh

The Tipsy Fiddler played after the competitions through to 17:00.

A ceilidh tells you where to stand and who to turn to, and the rest works itself out. You can arrive knowing nothing and be dancing inside a minute. Families who had met an hour earlier finished the afternoon in the same set.

The closing ceremony and prize giving followed at 17:00. Thanks to our sponsors and volunteers and then a field in Pudong slowly emptying in the early evening.

Why Does an International School in Shanghai Host a Highland Games?

Because our students should see the cultures they read about, standing in front of them, at full scale. We are a British international school in Shanghai, with students aged 2–18 and 40 nationalities and regions on one campus. A Scottish Highland Games is not something our families could easily reach from Pudong. So we brought it here, opened the gates and let the city come in.

Over 72,000 square metres, a 300-seat theatre, two indoor sports halls and pitches that can hold a caber toss and 700 spectators on the same afternoon.

Come and See the Campus

The Games are one Saturday. The school runs every day.

If you are choosing a school in Shanghai, come and walk the campus while it is in use. See the MIT Maker Space with students in it. See a rehearsal in the Theatre. Ask our teachers how long they have been here, and note that our academic staff average 15 years of teaching experience and almost six years with us.

Book a visit:

admissions@naispudong.com

+86 (21) 5812-7455 ext.1015

2888 Junmin Rd, Pudong, Shanghai