At Shanghai, rowing and sailing were popular sports among the westerners. With the foundation of the Shanghai Regatta Club in 1848, the sport gained even greater popularity. This picture shows sportsmen taking part in a sculling race with spectators including westerners and Indian Parsees on the quayside. The vessel with the American flag is the umpire boat belonging to the firm Russell & Co. A Chinese regiment is depicted on review in front of the Shanghai Custom House (the second building on the left). The building overlooking the Suxhou Creek (far right) is the British Consulate. Judging from the style of the western buildings along the Bund, this appears to be a very early view of Shanghai. The boat race was a familiar theme in port views of Shanghai in this period. There a number of watercolours of the subject, some attributed to Tinqua's studio.

Carl Crossman has listed four versions of this subject in his book The China Trade, 1991, pp.133 - 134 which he unquestionably attributes to the artist Sunqua, ranking them among his most impressive works. One of these versions is in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, see Hong Kong Museum of Art,Gateways to China, 1987, no.39. For another version see Patrick Conner,The China Trade, Brighton, 1986, no. 53, ill.83.