The club was founded in 2003 as Shanghai Hengyuan Football Club before they made their debut in the third tier of China's football league pyramid in the 2003 league season. When the People's Liberation Army dismissed part of its sports branch, which included its football team the club became interested in acquiring it before ultimately buying their youth team. On April 2, 2004, a new club named Nanchang Bayi Hengyuan Football Club was established with players who had played for the Shanghai Hengyuan Football Club and the Bayi U-19 team. The club worked its way up to the top tier after coming runners-up in the second division during the 2009 league season and promotion to the Chinese Super League. The club name changed to "Nanchang Hengyuan Football Club" at 2010 summer, because the word "Bayi" (means People's Liberation Army) used by enterprise is prohibited from 2009. After almost eight years in Nanchang the club would decide to move back to Shanghai at the beginning of 2012 and renamed themselves Shanghai Shenxin Football Club.