Shanghai — Leather riding boots are neatly lined up on a carpet, a picture shows blood-thirsty hounds on a fox hunt and a fountain spews water from the mouths of stone horses.

It may have the trappings of upper-class Britain, but this is in fact suburban Shanghai and the County Down Club, the self-styled first exclusive membership club in China for horsemanship and fox-hunting.

The club, which takes its name from a county in Northern Ireland, was founded three years ago and owner Steven Sun says equestrian sport "has developed rapidly in China during the past five to 10 years".

Rising numbers of Chinese are taking up sports such as horse riding as the country's growing economy -- now the second biggest after the United States -- gives people more disposable income to pursue leisure activities.

County Down has a dozen horses and Sun wants it to be at the forefront of promoting equestrian sports in China.

County Down has about 80 members and annual membership is 58,000 yuan ($8,400), but prospective newcomers will need more than just deep pockets.

A two-hour drive from Shanghai is the horse-themed "Pegasus Water Town" complete with hotels, art gallery, a mall with Venice-style gondolas, an equestrian club and "Horse Culture Museum".

There are more than 400 horses of dozens of breeds imported from around the world and visitors form long queues for horse-drawn carriage tours of the resort in Jiangsu, the province west of Shanghai. — AFP