[Hai Lights] 6 Running Clubs to See the Fall Side of Shanghai

Shanghai runs. Flat streets. Expanding greenways. And a marathon that's set to crash the running world's most exclusive club. It's fall, the unofficial kickoff to the outdoor season in one of the best running cities on earth. But don't take our word for it.

This December, the Shanghai Marathon could join the world's elite running cities: Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York, Sydney, Cape Town. The oldest, largest, most historically significant marathons in the world. Boston dates back to 1897.

The Abbott World Marathon Majors (like the "majors" in golf or tennis) will decide this winter whether the Shanghai Marathon will become a global top-tier marathon. No Chinese race has ever made the list. If the Shanghai Marathon becomes the ninth World Marathon Major, it will give a major boost to running in the city, attracting elite marathoners and raising Shanghai's profile in global athletics.

So… You're in a running city. In a running season. Get your shoes. Your sweatband. Your electrolytes. Your playlist. Your goal sheet. Get whatever you need because we're breaking down the best places to run this fall.

In this article, you'll hear from several leaders of local running groups: Ben Kirkby (RunnersHai, Urban Tigers); Cory Arth (FitFam); Kyung Hyun Joeng (GCS; Growth Club Shanghai); Chase Williams (Rooster Run); Bob Garner (Hash House Harriers); Charlie Howes (Move Crew).

(Quotes have been edited for clarity and brevity.)

Suzhou Creek

Credit: Mind Save

A decade ago, the main benefit of running Suzhou Creek was no traffic lights. By 2020, the city had completed 42 kilometers of pedestrian walkways. By 2035, the city plans to extend Creek-side paths and pedestrian development to 66 kilometers.

Bob Garner (Hash House Harriers): "Suzhou Creek has been upgraded a lot." Garner has run in Shanghai for 20 years. "I run along Suzhou Creek because it's pretty and not crowded, and you don't get run over by a delivery driver."

Chase Williams (Rooster Run): "One hundred percent, it's the best place to run in Shanghai." You can run "west nearly all the way to Hongqiao Airport, or east to the Bund."

Ben Kirkby (RunnersHai, Urban Tigers): "Suzhou Creek is great, especially now they've connected it to the park in Hongqiao."

Charlie Howes (Move Crew): "The quintessential route is running Suzhou Creek to the Bund and back."

Metro stations

East end access: Tiantong Road Station (Lines 10/12); walk south on Henan Road N. to Suzhou Creek.

West end access: Beixinjing Station (Line 2); walk north on Beiyu Road to Suzhou Creek.

Other access points along the route: Xinzha Road Station (Line 1); Qufu Road Station (Lines 8/12); Hanzhong Road Station (Lines 1/12/13); Zhongshan Park Station (Lines 2/3/4); Changfeng Park Station (Line 15); Beixinjing Station (Line 12).

Distance: 42 km of completed pedestrian path as of 2020.

Huangpu River

Expats often pick Puxi over Pudong for living, nightlife, etc. For runners, it's more of a tossup. The Huangpu is a working river. Ships are ubiquitous. But the city has transformed Shanghai's main waterway to a central location for runners, walkers and bicyclists–on both sides of the river. And they're not done. The city's master plan calls for extending Huangpu River pedestrian greenways north from Fuxing Island (Yangpu) to the Greater Wusong area near the Yangtze River, bringing the riverfront to about 50km.

Charlie Howes (Move Crew): "Gate M to Lupu Bridge (on the Puxi side) is pretty and you can get food at Gate M after. Running on water is deeply human. A lovely reset in a big urban sprawl."

Bob Garner (Hash House Harriers): "All of those running tracks down the Bund on both sides of the river mean that there's a lot more clean and safe places to run."

Chase Williams (Rooster Run): "You can jump on a ferry and cross over into Pudong and keep running there and then cross on another ferry back and keep running. A friend and I did that. We ran 50 kilometers."

Ben Kirkby (RunnersHai, Urban Tigers): "Being able to run from Xupu Bridge in the south all the way up to Fuxing Island unbroken, without a single traffic light, is amazing. What other cities have that much unbroken (running)?"

Puxi Metro stations

South end access: Longyao Road Station (Line 11); walk east, through Gate M, to access the riverside.

North end access: Danyang Road Station (Line 18, exit 2); walk south through the Oriental Fisherman's Wharf complex for riverside access. Or Yangshupu Road Station (Line 4); walk south along Qinhuangdao Road for riverside access.

Other access points along the route: International Cruise Terminal Station (Line 12); Tiantong Road Station (Lines 10/12); Nanjing East Road Station (Lines 2/10); Nanpu Bridge Station (Line 4).

Pudong Metro stations

South end access: Oriental Sports Center Station (Lines 6/8/11, exit 4); walk west along Yaoti Road to access the riverside from Qiantan Leisure Park or Sister City Park.

North end access: Xiepu Road Station (Line 14, exit 4); walk north along Xiepu Road to access the path within Yangpu Bridge Riverside Greenland.

Distance: An estimated 45 km of continuous riverfront paths between Yangpu and Xupu bridges.

Twin Mountains

Shanghai has a mountain. Two mountains. China's largest artificial hills, apparently. They're odd, beautiful, man-made, and are among Shanghai's newest fun runs.

Ben Kirkby (RunnersHai, Urban Tigers): "That park, massive. Incredible. You can run up the mountain and everything. Really good park as well, especially with kids."

Bob Garner (Hash House Harriers): "A cool place to run. Very pretty park. You've got trails, and you can run up these hills in the nighttime. It's beautiful. We did an evening Hash run near the Twin Mountains, and a very nice lady showed up and joined us for the run. Afterwards, she said she was one of the designers of these mountains!"

Charlie Howes (Move Crew): "Lots of cool stuff to see in the park. Running up the man-made mountain is fun."

Metro stations: Houtan Station (Line 7, exit 4); Shibo Avenue Station (Line 13).

Lane Running

Shanghai is a concrete jungle of nearly 25 million people. But it's got a softer side, and you can run it.

Kyung Hyun Joeng (Growth Club Shanghai): "Our Longtang (Lane House) Run route passes through traditional lane house compounds. We know hidden gates and specific hours that allow us to weave through residential compounds where people still live." It's like a time machine to an earlier Shanghai, Kyung said.

Cory Arth (FitFam): "We start in Xiangyang Park (in Xuhui), go down a block to Nanchang Rd, and then on the south side of iapm we head out toward the Bund. You go through Xintiandi, through Yuyuan Garden to the Bund Finance Center, before heading back the same route, roughly a 10k."

Bob Garner (Hash House Harriers): "I like running in the tree-lined city center quite a bit. I've been here long enough to know where the back alleys are. I like running through the lanes."

Metro stations: Shaanxi South Road Station (Line 10); Site of the First CPC National Congress – Xintiandi Station (Lines 10/13).

Historic Run

In China, there are 5,000 years of history. There are history walks and history runs.

Kyung Hyun Joeng (Growth Club Shanghai): "(We have a) historical 5km loop following Renmin Road and Zhonghua Road, where the ancient Shanghai city wall stood until 1911. Adjacent to it is a smaller loop around People's Square, which was once a horse racing track. We run past wall fragments. It's a storytelling run into old Shanghai."

Other Runs

Century Park

Shanghai's largest park. Completed in 2000, hence the name. Metro stations: Huamu Road Station (Line 7); Century Park Station (Line 2, exit 1 or 4); Shanghai Science & Technology Museum Station (Line 2, exit 4 or 5).

Ben Kirkby (RunnersHai, Urban Tigers): "You go there on a Saturday or Sunday, there are always runners doing laps. We've done 15 kilometers within that park and not going over the same path twice."

Luwan Stadium, Jiao Tong University

Urban Tigers' Saturday interval sessions at Luwan Stadium in summer, Jiao Tong University in winter.

Metro stations: Jiashan Road Station (Lines 9/12, exit 2) or Dapu Bridge Station (Line 12, exit 3 or 4) for Luwan Stadium; Jiao Tong University Station (Lines 10/11, exit 4) for Jiao Tong University.

Dishui Lake

Charlie Howes (Move Crew): "You can run around the lake and then along the ocean, which is nice." One caveat: it's a trek. Dishui Lake sits near the coast in Lingang, though Shanghai L+SNOW (the world's largest indoor ski resort) and the Shanghai Planetarium are nearby. If you go, make a day/weekend of it.

Metro station: Dishui Lake Station (Line 16).

Western Pudong (villages and fields)

Bob Garner (Hash House Harriers): "I like to run out in the western part of Pudong, where you've got a mixture of villages and fields."

Everywhere in Shanghai

Shanghai is flat (besides the twin mountains). So, everywhere is a good place to run. Dial up the adventure.

Bob Garner (Hash House Harriers): "Sometimes it'll be around Jing'an, it can be out in Pudong, it can be up in the north... We deliberately try not to do the same run every time." Their sister group, Drunken Dragon, buses out to the countryside to run rice fields and forests near Songjiang.

Runnershai

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  RunnersHai members on the Bund and Huangpu riverside, and a high-five on race day.

6 Photos  |  View Slide Show

It's not just where, but why?

Running sucks. It's hard–before, during and after. Yes, it'll get you fit. But it's more than physical health. It's mental health. Spiritual health. Social health. Combined.

Charlie Howes (Move Crew): "It's like a big community. Everyone is friends. Not really about the run."

Chase Williams (Rooster Run): "We're essentially friends now... we all have the same goal. We want to be a little bit healthier in our lives, even if that includes drinking a beer at the end." (Rooster runs and Hash House Harriers end with a beer (or two, or three…)

Bob Garner (Hash House Harriers): "I've met lifelong friends at the Hash, and it's just a great, sociable thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. Our motto is: a drinking club with a running problem." The annual All-China Nash Hash is this October.

Cory Arth (FitFam): "If I just roll out of bed and say, 'Hey, I'm going to go running,' there's a good chance I'm going to stay in bed. But when you go in the group chat and say, 'Hey, I'm signed up, I'm going to be there,' that accountability and extrinsic motivation have been hugely valuable."

Ben Kirkby (RunnersHai, Urban Tigers): Ben remembers a few years ago, an out-of-shape man showed up at RunnersHai saying he wanted to run a half marathon. "The first session, he ran 200 meters in 45 minutes. Not much at all. But he kept coming back. And he kept coming back, and he kept coming back, and he kept coming back." He progressed, struggled, and eventually ran in a half marathon. "I've never seen so many people waiting to cheer on one guy at the end of a race. For me, that was probably one of the best – I'm feeling a little bit emotional thinking about it – like probably the best experience I've ever had with running, and I wasn't even running."

Cory Arth (FitFam): "Even if somebody's falling behind, we'll always have a volunteer at the back just to make sure people feel comfortable. We want them to come back."

Bob Garner (Hash House Harriers): "No one was interested in their time. Everybody was just having a good time running together and not being overly competitive."

Kyung Hyun Joeng (Growth Club Shanghai): "We completed a 330km relay run from Shanghai to Hangzhou. The true challenge wasn't just the distance, but the intense logistics and teamwork required. Over a hot summer day and night, 20 members supported one another continuously, forging an unbreakable bond. It's an experience everyone still talks about and wants to repeat."

To participate, find these clubs on WeChat:

WeChat: RunnersHai

WeChat: FitFamChina

WeChat: Shanghaihash

WeChat: Growth Club Shanghai

WeChat: Move Crew

WeChat: TheRooster

Share your favorite local runs in the chat.