I spent a week in Shanghai in July 2026 and while I was there I visited several BJJ academies to train. I also took the opportunity to find out how many other BJJ clubs were in the city.
SHANGHAI
Shanghai is absolutely massive! Technically, it is not just a city, but a municipality, which covers a wider area than the city alone. Over 30-million people live here, spread across an area that is four times larger than London and five times larger than New York City. It is the largest city in China by population and the 5th most populous city in the world.
Being such an important hub for finance, business, retail and the arts, and drawing in many people from the nation as well as overseas, it’s a city that will naturally have ample access to leisure pursuits, including BJJ.
But finding out about BJJ clubs here isn’t as easy as you think. Since China does not allow websites and social media apps from outside the country to operate, you’ll have to use Chinese apps to search, locate, contact and book yourself into BJJ clubs here.
Hopefully my map below (which lists 21 active clubs that I know about) will help you choose a nearby club if you’re visiting Shanghai for holiday or coming here to work.
HOW TO FIND BJJ CLUBS IN CHINA
Western websites and apps aren’t generally accessible in China, and whilst there are ways around the Great Firewall of China, most Chinese businesses tend to not bother creating pages for Western viewers. That’s why for us visitors, it’s very hard to get information about BJJ clubs using just Google, Instagram etc.
While there are a couple of BJJ clubs that do have a presence on Western social media (Method MMA and Nomadic Grappling) I found that the best way to source clubs was to use a combination of Rednote (aka Xiao Hong Shu, 小红书), AMap (China’s version of Google Maps), Baidu Maps (another map service) and WeChat (aka Weixin, 微信). This applies to any business in China, not just BJJ clubs.
By typing 巴西柔术上海 (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Shanghai) into the search box of the map sites, Rednote and WeChat, I was able to see a bunch of posts from various clubs in the city. That being said, I found that it was not always up to date – a few clubs I saw listed seemed no longer to be active, or new clubs that I heard from other sources weren’t shown yet.
Rednote is the most user friendly. It is very much like Instagram, so I used this app to see how active the club and check out the photos and videos of the facilities.
WeChat was also very useful since most clubs (though not all) allow you to pre-book classes via the WeChat mini-services section. It’s straightforward to do as long as you have your bank card connected to the app. See this article to learn more about how to use money in China. See the image below on how to book at class at Nomadic Grappling.
LIST OF ALL THE BJJ CLUBS IN SHANGHAI
This list isn’t comprehensive, but it covers most of the main clubs in Shanghai. Apologies if I’ve missed out some. To qualify, the club has to have an active and up-to-date social media presence on Rednote or WeChat. A lot of clubs that opened from maybe 5-10 years ago are no longer active or have changed names, so those have been omitted. Some clubs I know exist in some capacity but they just don’t seem to have any Chinese social media presence.
As the map above shows, most academies are clustered around the central region of Shanghai, mainly west of the Huangpu River, with a fair few east of the river in the newer-built district of Pudong.
Here are the clubs listed on the map plus details on how to find out more about them:
DEF GROUP
Weixin id: DEFGROUP
Within the DEF Group WeChat section, you get the choice of seeing details for each of their three academies:
DEF Group – Xintua academy
Address: No. 728 Xinhua Road, Xinhua Road Subdistrict, Changning District, Shanghai (460-meter walk from Exit 2 of Yan’an West Road Metro Station).
上海市长宁区新华路街道新华路728号(延安西路地铁站2号口步行460米)
DEF Group – Qixin academy
Address: Room A01, Block A, No.1855, Qixin Road, Minhang District, Shanghai
上海市闵行区七莘路1855号1层A01/
DEF Group – Century Avenue Academy
Address: B1, East Hope Building, No. 1777 Century Avenue, Pudong, Shanghai
上海市浦东新区世纪大道1777号东方希望大厦中庭下楼梯B1
NOMADIC GRAPPLING
Weixin: Nomadicgrappling
上海市徐汇区徐汇创意园蒲汇塘路50号三楼3A
Unit 3A, 3rd Floor, No. 50 Puhuitang Road, Xuhui Creative Park, Xuhui District, Shanghai
BUSHIDO JING’AN BRANCH
Weixin: BUSHIDO JINGAN
Address: 9th Floor, 445 Jiangning Road, Shanghai
上海市上海市静安区江宁路445号9楼C座
BUSHIDO – XUHUI
Address: Unit 202A, Building 1, Shangjie, No. 508 Jiashan Road
嘉善路508号尚街1号楼202A单元
BUSHIDO – PUJIN
Adress: Room 213, 2nd Floor, Building A, Pujin Xintiandi, No. 20, Lane 1281, Pujin Road, Minhang District, Shanghai
上海市闵行区浦锦路1281弄20号浦锦新天地A栋2楼213室
MAHMOUDI GYM
Weixin: MAHMOUDIGYM
Address: No. 666, 6th Floor, 715 Aomen Road, Shanghai
澳门路715号创意园6楼666室
WEDGE JIUJITSU
Weixin: 楔GRAPPLING
Address: 201a, 63 Miao Pu Road, Pudong, Shanghai
上海市上海市浦东新区苗圃路63号201A
STRUCTURE ACADEMY
Weixin: SA飒柔术
When you land on their WeChat page, there are two academy locations to choose from:
1st Floor, Building 4, Yongjia Ting (Yuejie), No. 570 Yongjia Road, Tianping Road Subdistrict, Xuhui District, Shanghai
上海市上海市徐汇区天平路街道永嘉路570号越界永嘉庭4栋1楼411A
And
Building 1, Courtyard Wing, Poly Pukai Financial Center, 99 Yanggao South Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai
上海市上海市浦东新区杨高南路99弄1号保利浦开金融中心裙房
REFUGE MMA
On Weixin: 武居REFUGEMMA
Address: Room 301, Bilin Center, No. 1468 Hongqiao Road, Changning District, Shanghai
上海市长宁区虹桥路1468号比邻中心301室
CHAMP BJJ
On Weixin: 小冠军
Address: No. 333 Linping Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai
上海市虹口区临平路333号
SUPER M COMBAT ACADEMY
Weixin: SuperM
Address: No. 2000 North Sichuan Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai
上海市虹口区四川北路2000号
WOLF TEAM BJJ
Rednote: Wolfcave
Address: Room 1405, Yuanlin Building, 130 Zhizaoju Road, Shanghai.
WARZONE BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU
I could not find a Weixin or Rednote account, but students and visitors seem to post about this academy often and recently, so I’m sure they’re still very active.
Address: Unit B1-20, Third Space, No. 942 Zhenhua Road, Baoshan District, Shanghai
上海市 宝山区真华路942号第三空间B1-20
TACTICS BJJ
Rednote: 42283470571
Weixin: Tactics柔术.格斗
Address: Room 1007, Building 1, Lane 388, Zhongjiang Road
OCEAN COMBAT ACADEMY
Weixin ID: 海洋柔术
Address: Zhongxi Building, No. 1471 Wuding West Road, Changning District, Shanghai
上海市长宁区武定西路1471号中西大厦18A
EXTREME FIGHT LAB (EFL)
I could not find a Weixin or Rednote account, but students and visitors seem to post about this academy often and recently, so I’m sure they’re still very active.
Address: Room 533, 5th Floor, Hongqiao Debi Yiyuan, No. 1189 Wuzhong Road
吴中路1189号虹桥德必易园5楼533室
During my week in Shanghai, I visited the following three academies: DEF Group (CA), Bushido (Jing’an) and Nomadic Grappling. Here are my reports from all three:-
NOMADIC GRAPPLING
Shanghai’s Nomadic Grappling is the headquarters of jiujitsu phenom Jozef Chen (see why everyone rates Jozef here).
Booking a class wasn’t initially straightforward as Nomadic doesn’t have a website, but they do have Instagram. I DMed them on Instagram, which the manager did reply to, but by then I had learned how to access their booking system via WeChat (see examples above).
Transport there was super easy. Shanghai’s Metro system is wonderfully efficient and very foreigner-friendly. Get off Shanghai Sports Stadium (Line 1) and exit gate 8. Turn left and keep walking until you get to Puhuitang Road. Turn left down the road and look for number 50 and an outside sign for Nomadic. Walk up the exterior staircase to the third floor (remember floor naming system here begins with 1, not Ground level), and you are there. This video on Wechat shows more on how to get here.
The gym itself is very nicely set up. The front lobby has a seating area with an area to store your shoes since no footwear is allowed beyond this zone. There is a second seating area for relaxing, playing video games, drinking tea or even playing a game of Go.
There are two showers and a small curtained cubicle for changing clothes. Lockers and cubby holes are situated right next to the mats.
I attended the Monday night gi class, which was taught by a brown belt instructor (sorry, I didn’t catch his name). When I arrived, there was a beginner class in action and when it had finished the same students carried straight on to the advanced class, which was the one I had booked. This class began straight away without any warm-up or salutations.
My fellow students and I (there were about 12 of us ranging from white to brown) drilled seated guard sweeps for the first hour, then we did free rolling during the open mat in the second hour. The class had a very laid-back, relaxed vibe, which I liked (especially as I was a bit nervous for my first ever class in China).
All the instruction was in Mandarin Chinese. I couldn’t really keep up with understanding word for word but I found that just observing what the instructor was showing was more than adequate.
On the few occasions where I wasn’t sure what was being said, some of the other students, who had good English, were kind enough to translate for me.
I wasn’t expecting Jozef to be there, as he teaches morning and lunchtime Nogi sessions, but he popped in and was super friendly to chat to. If I had more time in Shanghai, I would have loved to attend his sessions, alas, maybe next time!
Overall, I was very impressed with the wonderful facilities of the place. The coach and the students were delightfully friendly and any supposed language barriers were not a problem – rolling is a universal language after all.
If you are reading this, you are probably interested in Jozef’s nogi classes, so here is a Reddit post which offers more information. My understanding is that his classes are very popular and some are fully booked. So make sure you get the WeChat app and book in advance.
A single 1hr session drop in fee was 300RMB plus free 1hr open training after (as long as you purchase a class first).
BUSHIDO BJJ, JING’AN BRANCH
This branch of the Bushido BJJ schools is situated on the 9th floor of a large office block (with a restaurant on the ground floor). It is right on the corner of a large crossroads (Wuding rd and Jiangning Road). If you can see the Shanghai Arts Theatre directly opposite then you’re on the right road. That being said, I somehow ended up lost around the rear entrance and had to ask for help – you’re supposed to walk through the main lobby and take the lift.
The nearest Metro is a fair walk so you might want to grab a DiDi taxi. It’s so easy to use, just like Uber. When I ordered a cab, Bushido was already listed on their map so I didn’t need to type in the full address.
When you exit the lift and open the academy door there is a small waiting area with seats and storage for bags. There is a further seating area with changing room space around the corner of the mats. Elsewhere on the floor there is a shower and toilets.
What’s really cool about the place is the lovely view of the city skyline from the windows. When I arrived, there was a lovely sunset and I kept switching my view from the cool window view and the coach teaching class lol.
The evening gi class I attended was taught by 5th degree black belt and former UFC athlete, Alberto Mina. There was also another black belt, Saulo Melo, who I understand to be the owner of the gym.
Both were really friendly and approachable coaches. I had some really fun rolls with them and the rest of the students. I noticed the student make-up was around 50% non-chinese folk, hence I guess it made sense that the class was taught solely in English. The class also had a lot of female members, which is generally a good sign of a healthy club environment.
The structure of the class I attended was as follows: brief warm ups (a few rounds of shrimping and breakfalling), technique breakdown (coach Mina taught an open guard passing sequence), positional sparring and then free sparring.
I was very impressed by the standard of the students, who ranged from white all the way through to black belt. The best roll I had was with a very tiny brown belt lady who executed a sweet overhead sweep on me…I literally went flying! It was so fun!
Cost 250RMB for a 1.5 hour class.
DEF Group (Century Ave branch) aka known as Shanghai BJJ
This branch of the DEF Group franchise is located in the Pudong district of Shanghai. Century Avenue is in Pudong New District – which, with its row upon row of newly built shiny office blocks, is a far cry from the older architecture of The Bund, which I was more familiar with. I took a taxi here from my hotel as I wasn’t sure where the nearest Metro was.
I attended the Sunday morning mixed levels ability class which was followed by open mat. Before class had even started, Coach Li introduced himself to me and made me feel welcome. Class began with a fairly long set of traditional warm up drills that all the students performed perfectly in unison. These included (two sets of each): back breakfalls, backward rolls, forward rolling breakfalls, sprawls, shooting, kneeling broad jumps, Granby rolls, sit throughs, supine side shuffles, forward and backward butt scoots.
After warm up, Coach Li showed us a standing technique (uchi mata into far leg ankle pick).
The main class was then dedicated to open guard and dealing with the top person trying to pass from headquarters position. All instruction was given in Mandarin Chinese. Just as with my class at Nomadic, I was able to follow along fairly easily by observing and catching a few key words, plus the odd bit of translation help from my training partner. The coach taught a variety of sweeps from this position that filled the hour, there was no sparring or set positional rounds – but most people stayed for open mat after.
During my visit, I would say this gym had the best mix of ages and abilities. Open mat was especially fun as I was able to have a lot of good rounds with people my size, age and ability. I also had some really tough rounds where I was totally schooled (by the brown and black belts)! Which I obviously loved.
The students present that day seem to consist mostly of Chinese folk with a couple of overseas folk, including two lovely Japanese fellas who were delightful company. As with Bushido, I was happy to see a very good number of women training here.
The facilities at this Pudong branch of the DEF Group academies are amazing. There is so much mat space, plenty of perimeter seating and both men’s and ladies areas for changing and showers. There’s even a dedicated weights area. The all-white mats and bright lighting helped to make the atmosphere feel open and inviting. I really liked it here.
Cost 200RMB for one hour class, the open mat was free (as long as you pay for the lesson beforehand). In the end I trained about 2.5 hours there.
FINAL THOUGHTS
From my short time in Shanghai I was able to see how well BJJ had established itself in this major city. It was great to see how popular the sport was and how well integrated the students were – with a good mix of local Chinese and overseas workers and travellers. With the presence of high-level instructors and very good homegrown athletes, I fully expect the BJJ scene here to grow exponentially over the next few years.
Travelling to China has never been easier. Currently, UK ciitizen, along with many from Europe and other countries around the world, can visit China (for up to 30 days) without the need for a visa in advance. You still need to complete forms and show your ID when you enter the country, which can be a bit tireseome due to long queues. But Shanghai has so much fun to offer the budding BJJ traveller, you’ll be guaranteed to have a great time!
