Jimi China Bound.

Jimi is heading back to Beijing early next year (2017) to entertain crowds at a massive, week long Chinese New Year festival.

Organisers were keen to book Jimi early this year after failing to secure his services for their 2016 event due to an unforeseen administrative problem.

This will be Jimi's third visit to Beijing as a performer at the city's New Year celebrations. He was first invited over with his old ceilidh band in 2005 and again in 2010 with African drummer Sam Okoo. In 2017 Jimi will be playing solo, using backing tracks, pipes and keyboards.

The festival in Chaoyang Park, Beijing runs from January 28 to February 3.

"I'm really looking forward to heading back to China" said Jimi.  "I always had a great time when I was there before. Really appreciative crowds, fantastic hospitality and culture. Nice people and good payers!

Jimi is quite happy to be travelling as a solo performer. He will be treating his latest visit to the Chinese capital as "a musical sabbatical"!

"I've been booked to perform four, half hour sets per day for a week, so they'll be working me quite hard but that's fine.  Plenty time to chill and zone on new ideas back at the hotel afterwards. The Chinese always put us up in the finest of hotels"