page_title: Shanghai Race Club
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Shanghai Race Club / History
caption_attribution_description: Back of public stand and administration building of the Shanghai Race Club
context_page_description: The Shanghai Race Club was a horse racing club located in Shanghai, China. The Club was based at the Shanghai Racecourse, and the two names are often used interchangeably. Originally the Race Committee of the International Recreation Club, the Race Club was first established in 1850, with the building of Shanghai's first racecourse. In 1862, it detached itself from the Shanghai Recreation Club to become an independent body. The Club's activities were affected by the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. After the Communist takeover of Shanghai in 1949, the Club was placed under military administration in 1951 and its properties taken over by the government in 1954.
context_section_description: The Race Committee of the International Recreation Club (also called the Shanghai Recreation Fund) organised its first race meet in 1848. In 1850, five founding directors (W. Hogg, T.D. Gibb, Langley, W. W. Pakin and E. Webb) obtained a permanent lease over land at the corner of Honan Road and Nanking Road and built the first racecourse (known as the "Old Park"). The Race Club was formed the same year, and the first race meet was held the next year.
  By 1861, the Race Club had 25 members. In 1854, the Old Park was sold at a profit, and the racecourse was enlarged and moved west to the intersection of Chekiang Road and Nanking Road (known as the "New Park"). The influx of refugees fleeing the Taiping Revolution rebels caused a sharp rise in city centre property prices in Shanghai. In 1862, with funds realised from sale of the old racecourse and sports ground, the Race Club was able to purchase even larger grounds further to the west, and construct the third (and last) Shanghai Racecourse. The land enclosed by the race track was sold to the Recreation Club for use as sports grounds. In 1910, the Recreation Club purchased a controlling share of the racecourse at Kiang-wan (now Jiangwan) (which was renamed the International Recreation Ground), and thereafter became the main rival to the Race Club.
  The Race Club prospered from the influx of migrants into Shanghai in the early 20th century and the sale of hugely popular raffle tickets from 1908. By 1938, it had purchased all of the assets of its former parent, the Shanghai Recreation Club (which had lost its major source of revenue when the Kiang-wan Racecourse was ransacked by invading Japanese troops), including the sport field surrounded by the racecourse.
  The Club's activities were affected by the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. Upon the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, Japanese forces occupied the Race Club, but racing resumed in December, 1941 and continued regularly until August of 1945. The facilities were briefly used by US forces at the end of the war in 1945.  However, due to public outcry about this vestige of colonialism in central Shanghai and the reputation of the racecourse as a gambling den, the government did not permit race meetings to be resumed. From 1946, the Republic of China government began negotiations with the Race Club to resume the racecourse. 
  In 1947, in the midst of negotiations with the government over acquisition of the racecourse, the Club incorporated as three companies, registered in Hong Kong, which respectively held various parts of the Club's buildings and facilities; the Recreation Club was also nominally maintained, holding the sports ground surrounded by the race track. Negotiations to exchange the racecourse for a larger plot of suburban land to build a new racecourse never concluded due to the intervention of the Civil War.
  After the Communist takeover of Shanghai in 1949, the Trustees of the Shanghai Recreation Fund wrote to the new Communist administration to voluntarily hand over the properties of the Recreation Club, including the sports ground at the centre of the Racecourse. Because the Race Club and the Recreation Club had by now effectively become one, the government waited until the next year to officially "receive" the properties of both the Race Club and the Recreation Club at the Racecourse. The Racecourse was placed under military administration on 31 May 1951. The land occupied by the Racecourse was resumed by the government, the Club's buildings remained in its hands, but it had to pay land tax. In September, the government began reconstruction of the race course as People's Park and People's Square. As the Club still could not organise horse races, it did not have any significant income, and by 1954 owed large amounts of land tax and staff salary. The Club had no choice but to hand over all of its properties to the government to pay these debts.
  On 31 May 1954, the government took over all of the Club's buildings. The club house became, first, the Shanghai Museum, and later, the Shanghai Librar
caption: The back of the public stand and the administration building of the Shanghai Race Club
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