Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Running in Shanghai

Shanghai is another city I have visited frequently and always stuck on
the hotel treadmills since the sidewalks seemed so crowded, and the
streets far too perilous to run across. But I had heard rumors of a
mecca of running in Shanghai - Century Park - and sure enough on a
sunny Saturday morning in November I saw dozens of runners circling
the perimeter sidewalk of the huge park. The park's outside
perimeter path is approximately 5km which seems to be the global
standard for urban running loops (Tokyo's Imperial Palace, Seattle's
Green Lake, NY Central Park...). This may be the only place in
Shanghai where you can cover 5km without encountering a single
stoplight or cross traffic.

Being a tourist, I opted to pay the 10 RMB (US$1.30) and do part of my
12k run inside the park. Despite the throngs of local Chinese
families (invariably one child, two parents, four grandparents), most
of the park trails are quiet and empty. I managed two laps inside the
park before I joined the local runners streaming around the perimeter
sidewalk for half a lap. About half the runners appear to be foreign
expats and I learn from one that on my next trip to Shanghai I need to
come to Century Park's Gate 7 on Tuesday nights at 7:30pm for the
festive, weekly YiQiPao group run.

Century Park is on the Pudong side of Shanghai - adjacent to the
global financial district the Chinese government has built from empty
swampland over the past two decades. The park is right on the Metro
Line subway and my taxi ride back to the other side of town costs me
US$6

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3 comments:

  1. Christian6:04 PM

    how was the air?
    i remember that i ran within university on the track there and i still could rarely breathe... is the park better?

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  2. Jay5:15 PM

    I was told that the air was cleaner than usual on the day that I ran in Shanghai. I could certainly see a layer of smog on the horizon when my plane was landing.
    My friend said that the air in the center of Shanghai is cleaner than at his home in the outer suburbs of Beijing, and that he has no problem running and breathing in Shanghai. And Century Park is a bit toward the eastern edge of city so perhaps the air is relatively cleaner.

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  3. MilesandMiles10:54 PM

    I ran there last week end... By Shanghai standard century park is pretty nice, the problem is not to get ran over by cars or cyclists while jogging there from the hotel! I also learned that running in the cycling lane is not safe ! ARnaud

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