LONDONDERRY | Andy Soucy and Serge Beaulieu are back in town after their "fact seeking mission" to Beijing last week.

Soucy, the Londonderry school district's music director, and Beaulieu, the assistant director, were invited by Panda North American Travel Company to shadow a band from Palm Springs, Calif., that was performing in Beijing that week. The visit was in preparation for the Londonderry High Lancers Marching Band and Color Guard's trip in July of 2008 to perform at the International Youth Festival being held as a prelude to the Summer Olympics.

"We could objectively see how the kids from Palm Springs responded to things like food and other cultural changes," Soucy said. "The band played for four national TV appearances like we will be doing next summer."

Soucy explained that the band performances are arranged by the director of the Peoples Liberation Army Band.

"The shows are organized by the government in conjunction with the Olympic Committee," he said.

The Lancers band will perform on the Great Wall, at the Millennium Forum and in Wang Fu Jing Square, and also hopes to play in one of the Olympic stadiums.

"The performance in Wang Fu Jin Square is like the Macy's Parade," Soucy said. "We have to perform a routine on a surface the size of a basketball court."

This is no small feat. While the Palm Springs band had 140 members, Londonderry's band will have 275 members marching on the same space.

Beaulieu found the city of Beijing to be "amazing."

"It's a modern city with a lot of traffic and very crowded with people," he said.

While Soucy found the weather to be humid for this time of year, Beaulieu said Beijing is on the same latitudinal line as New Jersey.

"Overall, the weather was nice," Beaulieu said.

Soucy and Beaulieu visited the same places that the band will visit, such as Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. They also walked along the Great Wall.

"The kids will have to be in shape to carry their instruments up the Wall," Soucy said. "It gets steep."

Beaulieu said the best part of their scouting mission was the shopping.

"We went to a place called Silk Alley," he said. "It actually used to be little stalls in an alley where people shopped. Now, it's a five-story building. There were incredible deals and we had fun bargaining."

Soucy and Beaulieu flew from Newark, N.J. direct to Beijing, a 13-hour flight that went over the North Pole.

"It's real now," Soucy said about the band making its journey next summer.