Shanghai China Columbia Country Club Real Photo Postcard

The Columbia Country Club, established in Shanghai, China, served as a prominent social and recreational center for the city's significant international expatriate community, particularly during the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. Its architecture, featuring Mediterranean Revival or Spanish Colonial influences, was typical of the Western-style buildings constructed in the foreign concessions to provide familiar amenities and a sense of home for residents from abroad.

Shanghai, as a major treaty port, developed a unique cosmopolitan character shaped by its foreign concessions where extraterritoriality allowed various nations to maintain their own administrations and institutions. Clubs like the Columbia Country Club were essential social hubs, offering leisure activities such as swimming, tennis, and dining, and reinforcing the social networks of the Western residents in a rapidly modernizing yet politically complex China.