The most visible piece is Conghua.
HKJC opened the Guangzhou facility in 2018 as a training centre, but it has steadily grown into something larger: a Mainland operating base tied to racing, tourism and the wider equine industry.
Regular international-standard racing is due to begin there in October 2026, under a model developed with Guangzhou authorities. The races are not being positioned as a Mainland betting product. Instead, Conghua sits inside a broader plan linking sport, tourism, hospitality and the Greater Bay Area.
That matters because it shows how HKJC has approached Mainland China: not by exporting its Hong Kong wagering model, but by building the infrastructure around it.
Beijing, Shenzhen and a Mainland membership network
Conghua is only one part of the footprint.
HKJC has operated a Beijing Clubhouse since 2008 and later expanded its membership presence into Shenzhen.
These are not symbolic offices. They are part of a premium private-club network aimed at Mainland members and business communities, with access connected back to HKJC facilities in Hong Kong.
The geography is revealing.
Beijing gives HKJC a long-standing presence in the capital.
Shenzhen puts it inside the commercial core of the Greater Bay Area.
Conghua gives it a physical racing and equine base in Guangzhou.
Taken together, that is a much deeper Mainland structure than a single training centre.
Mainland China is also becoming a source of customers
HKJC is not only expanding into Mainland China. It is also pulling Mainland visitors back into Hong Kong.
The Club reported almost 196,000 Mainland visitors to its Hong Kong racecourses during the 2024/25 season, more than double the previous year.
It has also worked with China Travel Service on racing-related tourism packages linking Happy Valley, Sha Tin and Conghua.
That creates a two-way model.
HKJC can build racing and hospitality assets inside Mainland China while using them to strengthen traffic into its Hong Kong venues.
This is especially relevant because gambling itself remains tightly restricted in Mainland China. The value of the strategy lies in everything around betting: tourism, entertainment, membership, horse racing and business relationships.
HKJC’s Mainland China footprint extends across racing and training in Conghua, membership in Beijing, a Greater Bay Area network in Shenzhen and a long-standing technology joint venture linked to the Sports Lottery ecosystem.
The less visible connection is Sports Lottery technology
There is also a much less obvious part of HKJC’s Mainland presence.
Since 2009, HKJC has been involved in Beijing Zhongti Juncai Information Technology Co., a joint venture linked to China Sports Lottery Technology Development Co.
Current filings show HKJC Business Development (China) holding a large majority stake in the company, alongside China Sports Lottery Technology and China Sports Lottery Operations Management.
Its activities include software development, data processing, information-system integration and technical services.
More importantly, recent Chinese filings describe Zhongti Juncai as a technology service provider to the Sports Lottery system.
That connection deserves caution. There is not yet enough public evidence to say exactly which national Sports Lottery systems HKJC’s joint venture operates today.
But the company is still active, and its continued presence shows that HKJC’s Mainland footprint has included technology as well as racing and hospitality for well over a decade.
A different kind of expansion
None of this means HKJC is becoming a Mainland gambling operator.
That would miss the more interesting point.
HKJC has built a Mainland strategy that works around the limits of the market rather than confronting them directly.
In Guangzhou, it has racing and equine infrastructure.
In Beijing and Shenzhen, it has membership and business relationships.
Across the Greater Bay Area, it is developing tourism and visitor flows.
And inside the Sports Lottery ecosystem, it retains a long-standing technology connection that remains surprisingly little discussed.
Seen separately, each of those activities can look minor.
Seen together, they show that HKJC’s Mainland China presence is no longer just about Conghua. It is a network of assets and relationships that has been built steadily for nearly two decades.
We track how money, players and regulation move across East Asia's gaming markets — including the parts that don't show up in the official figures. If that's your world, reply. The best context usually comes from comparing notes.
East Asia Reports
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Author — Adrià Mas Rodríguez