How to Watch or Run the Shanghai Marathon on December 6

The Shanghai Marathon runs on Sunday, December 6, 2026, its 30th edition, starting at dawn by the bronze bull on the Bund and finishing at Xujiahui Sports Park. Places went by lottery back in the spring, so for this year you are almost certainly a spectator, not a runner, and that is a fine way to spend the morning. Here is where to stand, what shuts, and exactly how to get a place for 2027.

When and where is the Shanghai Marathon, and what is the route?

The race is on Sunday, December 6, 2026, with the elite and mass waves rolling off from around 7am. It starts at Chen Yi Square by the Bund, next to the bronze bull, runs west and south through the middle of the city, and finishes about 42.195 kilometres later at Xujiahui Sports Park in Xuhui, the redeveloped Shanghai Stadium grounds. The course is famously flat and fast, only about 25 metres of climbing across the whole thing, which is why personal records fall here and why it is now a candidate to join the World Marathon Majors. Around 23,000 runners take part.

How do you actually get a place to run it?

By lottery, and you plan a year ahead. Registration for the Shanghai Marathon opens on the official ShangMa app and website, usually in late April, closes in late May, and the ballot results land around late June. You need a passport to enter as a foreign runner and you must turn 20 by the end of the race year. So for December 2026 that window has closed; your move now is to mark next April in the calendar, make an account early, and enter the 2027 ballot the day it opens.

Where should you stand to actually see the race?

The start on the Bund is the spectacle: get to Chen Yi Square before 7am and watch 23,000 people pour off along the waterfront with the Lujiazui towers lighting up across the river. If you would rather see runners at speed with room to breathe, pick a point along East Nanjing Road or anywhere on the route a few kilometres in, where the field has spread out. The finish at Xujiahui Sports Park is where the emotion is, medals and collapses and reunions, though it is also the most crowded. Bring a flask; a December dawn on the Bund is cold, and the runners are the only ones who warm up.

What roads and metro stops are affected on race morning?

A lot, and early. On race Sunday the roads along the route close from before dawn until the early afternoon, starting with the Bund and the central stretches, so driving anywhere near the course is a lost cause. Take the metro instead; it runs normally, though a few exits that open right onto the route can be shut, so check the station map and pick an exit on your side of the road. The official race notice publishes the full closure list in the days before, and it is worth a two-minute read whether you are running, watching, or just trying to get to brunch.

What if you want to run one in Shanghai?

If 42 kilometres in December is not your year, the good news is Shanghai is a genuinely strong running city the rest of the year too. There are free weekend parkruns, a deep bench of run clubs that welcome newcomers, and a full calendar of smaller timed races through the seasons to build up on. Watching the marathon this year is also the surest preparation there is for entering it next: you will know the start, the cold, the crowd and the finish before you ever pin on a bib. If you love a big live-sport day, the marathon sits nicely alongside the city's other live-sport fixtures.

Which race morning is yours?

If you just want the atmosphere, head to the Bund start for 7am and bring gloves and a hot drink. If you are set on running it, forget 2026 and put the 2027 ballot in your calendar for late April. And if a full marathon is more than you want to take on, use the day to scout the route, join a run club, and build toward a shorter race first. However you do it, the city puts on a real show on the first Sunday of December.

As Laozi wrote, 千里之行，始于足下, a journey of a thousand miles begins beneath your feet; a marathon, or the year of training toward one, is only that first step repeated.

Words, maps and research by the Choice Shanghai team. Please credit us and tag our 公众号 if you share.