The Historical Evolution of Shanghai Happy Valley Hall

Establishment of Shanghai Happy Racecourse Hall

The Shanghai Jockey Club has changed places three times. In the thirty years of Daoguang (1850), five British businessmen W. Hogg, T. D. Gibb, Langley, W. W. W. Parkin and E. Webb organized a horse racing association, and now they are directors. Because the venue is too small, riders often ride horses on the mud and stone roads outside. People call these roads Lulu, which is why city streets are called Lulu now. The first horse race started at 185 1 and was held seven times. Due to the soaring land price, at 1854, the old park at the intersection of Nanjing Road and Henan Road will be sold at 10 at a price of more than 200 liang per mu. On both sides of Nanjing Road, Zhejiang Middle Road, a second racecourse was built at a price of 9,700 taels of silver, which is called New Park and covers an area of 170 mu. Hubei Road, Zhejiang Road, Zhifu Road, Tibet Road and Beihai Road form a loop, which was the original site of the second racecourse that year. In the eleventh year of Xianfeng (186 1 year), there were 25 members of the Happy Club. The new garden was sold at a high price of 100036 silver. The following year, the land west of Mudengqiao was purchased at a low price and the third racecourse was built. At that time, Hogg, together with the British Consul in Shanghai, proposed to Shanghai Road's political platform that a section of Tibet Road should be drawn west to build a Happy Valley Road with a length of 1.25 miles (20 12.25 meters) and a width of 60 feet (6.096 meters). With the consent of the Qing government, Hogg requisitioned 466 mu of farmland around Tibet Middle Road, Nanjing West Road, Huangpi South Road and Vu Thang Road at a low price, with a discount of only 25 taels per mu. At that time, there was a village with more than 70 houses in the middle of the site. Hogg and others forcibly bought it at a low price of 1 00 hectare for 30 hectares of land and1room. Under the pressure of the Qing government and the British, the peasants were unable to fight. Finally, this land was used to build the Shanghai Racecourse Hall, which is known as the first in the Far East.

This racecourse is jointly developed by shareholders. Most of the shareholders are British and the capital is provided by several foreign companies. The chairman of the racecourse committee is Johnson of Jardine Matheson. After Johnson returned to China, Pan of Xiangmao Company took over. Members include Clark, an empty-shell foreign firm, Lars, Maris, and Shaxun, an opium dealer, who owns a lot of real estate in Shanghai. The Committee (Board of Directors) has 1 secretary with a monthly salary of 2000 yuan. The secretary has a lot of power, and the longest term is the Danish arson case. There are 1 Chinese deputy secretaries under the secretary, and all the Chinese employees in the racecourse are employed by him, so he has great power.

Procedures for joining the Jockey Club

If you want to join the Jockey Club, you must go through certain procedures. Foreigners of any nationality who have reached the age of 2 1 can apply for membership, and then a voting committee composed of 911people will vote and all of them will be passed. If 1 person objects, reserve their application qualification and vote at the next meeting. If two people object, they should apply for filling out the form at another time. If three people object, their membership application will be cancelled permanently. 1908, the racecourse has 320 full members and 500 other members, each of whom pays a monthly membership fee 10 yuan. 1927, after Jiangwan Racecourse was established, Zhongmin was allowed to become an honorary member.

Income from the racetrack

Racecourse owners have accumulated a lot of money by gambling on horse races. The Jockey Club organizes horse races only for organizing work and does not supply horses. All the horses are kept by their owners. In addition to tickets, the income of the Jockey Club mainly depends on betting during horse racing. Before Xuantongyuan Year (1909), the gambling stall owners paid the deposit to Happy Valley Hall by means of listing quota, and set up open-air gambling in the venue. The stall owner is responsible for profits and losses, and Happy Valley Hall makes profits. In the future, in order to pursue more profits, various lottery tickets were issued before horse racing, among which champagne coupons were the most, and many people in China bought such lottery tickets. In 1930s, there was one ticket for horse racing in 5 yuan, and thousands of tickets were sold at a time, with a daily net income of 654.38+10,000. According to historical records, the annual ticket income of the Jockey Club is 654.38+ten thousand silver dollars, and the horse ticket income is more. During the 20 years from 1920- 1939, the income of champagne tickets and winning tickets reached141390,000 yuan, with an average annual profit of more than 7 million silver dollars. On the eve of [War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression], the Jockey Club still has more than 20 million yuan to barely maintain.

From the second year of Tongzhi (1863) to the eighth year of the Republic of China (19 19), horse racing days were held twice a year. Spring horse racing is from late April to early May; The autumn horse race lasts for 4 days each time from the end of June to mid-June165438+ 10. After 9 years of the Republic of China (1920), several days of preliminaries were added, and horse races were sometimes held on weekends and festivals.

The heyday of the racing association

The twenties and thirties were the heyday of the racing association. In 25 years of the Republic of China (1936), as the debt guarantor of WorldCom, it bought 5/8 shares of WorldCom, and in 27 years of the Republic of China (1938), it took over all the property of WorldCom, and the horse racing association became the real owner of all the venues in the whole Happy Valley.

1932, the Jockey Club demolished the old house and spent 2 million taels of silver. Designed by British-funded Mahai Foreign Firm, it is converted into a reinforced concrete structure, with a total length of1000 meters, four new floors and a construction area of 2 1000 square meters. The appearance belongs to classical modeling, and the exterior wall is reddish-brown masonry and Tashkent colonnade. There is a stand in front, and there is an eight-story bell tower in the northwest corner, which is 53 meters high. The bottom floor is the ticket office and prize collection office, the second floor is the member club, the third floor is the member box, and the fourth floor is the staff dormitory. The interior decoration is gorgeous. There is also the first swimming pool in Shanghai in Happy Valley. This racecourse was then known as the best racecourse in the Far East.

In the 30th year of the Republic of China (194 1 year), in February, the Pacific War broke out, the Japanese army occupied the concession, and the Happy Valley Hall was also occupied by the Japanese army. It was not until 34 years of the Republic of China (1945) that the British directors returned to Happy Valley Hall and resumed their activities.

In the 35th year of the Republic of China (1945), the Shanghai Municipal Government and the Happy Valley Association negotiated several times to recover Happy Valley. In order to facilitate negotiations, Happy Valley Association registered three companies with the Hong Kong government on April 9 of the following year according to the Company Registration Law. Shanghai Happy Racing Association Co., Ltd. (clubs and stands); Shanghai Jockey Club Stables Co., Ltd. (stables and dormitories); Shanghai Jockey Club Stadium Co., Ltd. (lawn runway). In addition, the 430-acre public stadium in the middle is still connected with the outside world in the name of the World Sports Association. The above four units are essentially a happy club. At that time, under the pressure of public opinion, the Shanghai municipal government did not agree to hold horse racing in Happy Valley Hall. Therefore, the Jockey Club had to agree to transfer part of the land in Happy Valley Hall to the government, but asked the municipal government to build a racetrack in the suburbs with 10 times the land in exchange. Later, it was close to liberation and did not come true. During the war of liberation, the racetrack was used as a club of the US military.

Turn it into a people's park.

After liberation, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government transformed Happy Valley Hall into People's Park and People's Square. Part of the building is used as Shanghai Library, Shanghai Art Museum and Shanghai Sports Palace. Later, the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress Office Building (later converted into the Shanghai Municipal Government Office Building-People's Building), Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall and other buildings were built, and the Shanghai Grand Theatre was also built in the original site of Shanghai Sports Palace.

The origin of champagne coupons is that there is no bonus at the beginning of the racecourse, and the winner only gets 1 bottle of champagne, so all subsequent lottery tickets are named after champagne. The price of each champagne ticket is 10 yuan, and there are different prizes such as first prize, second prize and third prize. At the beginning, the first prize can be100000 yuan, then it will be increased to150000 yuan, and finally it will be increased to 224000 yuan.