The Kontinental Hockey League’s only Chinese team has a new name and logo to go along with their new city in the upcoming season.
The team formerly known as Beijing HC Kunlun Red Star announced last week that it was officially relocating to Shanghai to become the Shanghai Dragons for the 2025-26 KHL season. The team will continue to play in the Tarasov Division in the KHL’s Western Conference.
The team’s new logo depicts the profile of a turquoise and blue dragon inside a red circle, with its horn extended outside the circle. A barbed blue extension — presumably representing the dragon’s tail — runs inside the right edge of the circle, while a red swoosh highlights the horn. The dragon’s eye is the only yellow in the logo.
The dragon, a legendary figure in Chinese cosmology, represents strength, wisdom, and good fortune. It’s one of the four celestial guardians in traditional Chinese culture, symbolizing the East – directionally and spiritually. It’s a powerful statement: the new identity is rooted deeply in cultural authenticity while embracing a global stage.
— Shanghai Dragons announcement
The Dragons also note that each of the colours in their palette has strong cultural meaning in China:
- Turquoise evokes the East and springtime – a symbol of renewal and hope.
- Yellow is the colour of emperors and sovereignty, long associated with the dragon itself.
- Red is both a nod to the national flag and an emblem of celebration and vitality.
Together, this palette builds a vibrant, unmistakable visual identity – a fusion of tradition and modernity. The Shanghai Dragons don’t just represent a city or a league. They stand as a cultural ambassador, a living bridge between China and the world of hockey.
The logo appears on the Dragons’ website both with and without a wordmark underneath, along with another horizontal wordmark in which both the city and team name the same height.
Kunlun Red Star first joined the KHL during the 2016-17 season as part of China’s preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. They played games at the Shougang Ice Hockey Arena and the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when they moved their operations to Mytishchi, Russia, just outside Moscow.
The Dragons will play their home games at the SKA Arena in Saint Petersburg, Russia, for the 2025-26 KHL, but they intend to move back to China permanently for 2026-27.
