But who could blame the security guard in a Beijing park yesterday morning? There were no instruments or bow ties in sight, just SSO physio David Peterson encouraging a small group of Lycra-clad musicians in a round of stretching exercises.

Who could have known they were soon to take the stage at Shanghai Symphony Hall under the baton of world-renowned American-born chief conductor and artistic director David Robertson?

When the guard politely asked the group to be a little quieter while they exercised, an amused Jane Hazelwood noticed that the only other park users were an elderly lady doing tai chi and “a very sweet kitten”.

“It was obviously a tranquillity park,” says Hazelwood, who followed both her parents into the SSO and has played full-time violin with the orchestra since 1995. Donald Hazelwood, now 87, was SSO concertmaster.

With the SSO on its fifth tour of China, touching down in Shanghai and Beijing, negotiating local customs and conditions are part of the adventure.

“I would have to say crossing the road here (in Beijing) seems much more challenging than Shanghai,” Hazelwood says.

“We basically shut our eyes and stick together.”

Members of the world’s various orchestras tend to swap notes on finding essential services in foreign cities — such as sniffing out a good coffee in China.

SSO associate principal trombone Scott Kinmont found a great piccolo coffee at Onirii cafe in Shanghai.

“Dave Elton our principal trumpet was talking to someone in the London Symphony Orchestra,” Kinmont says.

“We did have that planned out before we left.”

He paid $6 for the piccolo, “but you’re happy to pay it when you haven’t had a great coffee in four days”.

Kinmont has toured to Shanghai several times with the SSO, and has noticed that many traditional homes are giving way to space-age buildings. This trip he was struck by the city’s technological advancements.

“I was walking down a street and I couldn’t work out what was so unusual, something weird,” he says.

“There wasn’t a single car or motor scooter on that street that wasn’t electric.”

Kinmont has a practise mute to “stick in the noise end” of his trombone while he’s practising in his hotel room. All the musicians practise daily, keeping their skills razor sharp.

Keeping limber is also part of most of the musicians’ tour routine. Yesterday’s stretch group was smaller than usual as most of the musicians were on a bus heading to the Great Wall for some sightseeing.

Those who remained behind in Beijing did a concert of chamber music at the National Centre of the Performing Arts last night. It was the Chinese premiere of Spirit of the Wild by Nigel Westlake, the Australian composer who wrote the music for the hit movie Babe.

Tonight, all members of the SSO will regroup for the glittering final concert of its seven-day tour. They will be joined on stage by internationally acclaimed violinist Midori Goto, and there will be a post-concert reception to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Australia-China bilateral relations.

On the eve of the orchestra’s departure for China, it was awarded the inaugural Asia Society Australia-Chopard Passion for Excellence Award for five decades promoting Australia’s cultural achievements in the region.

The award was received by David Robertson. The American-born conductor adores the SSO and recently extended his contract until the end of 2019.

Also on tour is assistant conductor Toby Thatcher and a 15-strong administration team, including in-house GP Dr Alanna Horadan, production co-ordinator Brendan Taylor, head of product-ion Jack Woods, and multimedia content producer Daniela Testa.

Logistically, a tour like this is mind-boggling. Imagine organis-ing flights to and within China for 66 individual boxes containing 5.5 tonnes of musical instruments worth $4.5 million.

But it’s been hugely worth it, Robertson says.

“When an audience whoops as much as they did in Shanghai, then you have to give them an encore and (Leonard) Bernstein’s Candide was just perfect,” he says.

“We had to let the audience know we were leaving the stage, otherwise we’d still be there in the morning.”

The Sydney Opera House has been plagued with troublesome acoustics, which management is now rectifying as part of a huge renovation project.

Not so in Shanghai Symphony Hall.

“All of the musicians could hear each other in such great detail, which is something that doesn't really happen on the stage at the Sydney Opera House,” Robertson says.

The Shanghai concert featured Midori Goto in the gorgeous Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, and SSO concertmaster Andrew Haveron playing solo violin in Ligeti’s Romanian Concerto.

Haveron’s 1757 Guadagnini violin was purchased for him in 2015 by Sydney arts benefactor Vicki Olsson.

Kinmont says the Shanghai concert was a full house.

“A friend of mine was trying to buy tickets and couldn’t,” he says.

Kinmont enjoys his food, and spent time in Shanghai and Beijing trying the local street food as well as more up-market restaurants. Once the evening’s concert is over, everyone is free to go their own way. And go, they do.

“The remarkable synergy that sees this hundred-headed beast perform as one immediately becomes a thing of the past,” Kinmont says.

In the past, some particularly fastidious musicians would stay behind to finetune their instruments. But according to Kinmont, that approach is less popular after what happened during an earlier tour to a much smaller city in China.

“A group of these conscientious folk had an issue with the language and found out all too late that the only thing at that hour on the menu — somewhat tough ‘calamari’ — was in fact fried pig sphincters,” he says.

On the current tour, Kinmont followed the lead of orchestra members who had done their research and knew of a restaurant with “amazing ginger beef with a kick of chilli that envelops your tastebuds without setting your mouth on fire”.

Just as important as food on the tour was making connections with younger musicians and passing on knowledge. On days two and three, various SSO musicians did outreach with Shanghai’s Jian Ping High School and gave masterclasses at the Shanghai Orchestra Academy.

Kinmont says teaching students in China shows that music really is an international language.

“It’s always refreshing to see how little you need to rely on the spoken word to communicate musical ideas,” he says.

“Because most young Chinese students speak English at some level, I found that the only barrier that exists is on my side of the equation.

“I worked one-on-one with a trombone student in his early 20s. Jiwen Hu was incredibly responsive and excited to receive a few pointers.

“We will definitely keep in touch.”

On Sunday the orchestra returns to Sydney.

“We tend to sit in alphabetical order (on the plane) which usually places me next to David Peterson, who is always a joy to chat with,” principal piccolo Rosamund Plummer says.

Back home it will be business as usual for the SSO musicians. And not a pig sphincter in sight.