The Old Racecourse and Clock Tower

In front of you rises a stone clock tower that looks out of place among the surrounding skyscrapers. This was the Shanghai Race Club, and the great green space beside it, now People's Park and People's Square, was a horse-racing track for almost a hundred years.

1From walled town to treaty port

Before 1842, Shanghai was a walled town of cotton merchants, boatmen and fishermen on the banks of the Huangpu. After the First Opium War, the Treaty of Nanking forced the Qing dynasty to open five ports to British trade, and Shanghai began operating as a treaty port at the end of 1843. Beside the Chinese city, foreign settlements took shape: the British and American ones, which merged in 1863 into the International Settlement, and the French Concession, founded in 1849.

2Horses, bets and three tracks

British residents held races from 1848. The track moved west twice as the city grew, and in 1862 it arrived here, which was then the edge of town. The building you see, with its tower, opened in 1934 on the western side of the course, when race meetings were the great social event of the city.

After 1949 racing was abolished, and the land was turned into People's Park and People's Square.

The clubhouse later served as a museum, a library and an art museum. Since 2018 it has housed the Shanghai History Museum, a good place to make sense of everything you'll see on this route.

3What to look for

• The clock tower, which loomed over the grandstand and was the most visible landmark of the track.
• The stone facade, with 1930s columns and balconies, set against today's skyscrapers.
• People's Park, across the street, where horses once galloped.