Are you looking for a hotel in Shanghai? Here are some tips.

The most common mistake people make in Shanghai is getting a hotel near the Pearl Tower because- hey, that’s the centre of town right? WRONG. You can take a compass and draw a circle half a mile around the Pearl Tower and find absolutely nothing worth seeing.

If you have some kind of disease where you can’t cross rivers, and so HAVE to stay in Pudong then forget the famous Grand Hyatt with it’s stupidly high rooms and go for the Shangri-La instead. The view is much better (up close and personal with the Pearl Tower, all the way from the tip of the Bund to the flying roofs of Yu Yuan), the hotel restaurant Jade On 36 is incredible, and it’s close to the subway when you realise that everything good is over the water in Puxi.

Once you cross the river into the cool part of town, it’s possible to stay right on the Bund so you can still see your precious Pearl Tower- try Astor House- a grand old hotel where Charlie Chaplin, Bertrand Russel and (dead President) Ulysses S. Grant all stayed.
Astor House
It’s kind of old and maybe won’t have a pillow menu, but wouldn’t you trade that in to say you stayed in Einstein’s old room? Good value too- $100 per night, or thereabouts.

For a cheap hotel in Shanghai city center you could do a lot worse than the Bailemen. Right next door to a buddhist temple (Jing-An) directly on Nanjing Road (the main shopping street of Shanghai), it’s a 2 minute stroll to a major subway station, close to shopping, bars, restaurants etc. and is about 70$ per night.

Alternatively the Green Tree Inn is a 7 minute walk from the same subway station / temple. It’s on a quieter street, but still with plenty of stuff- for example a nice cafe called Waga’s opened up almost opposite the place. The Green Tree is right around the corner from a new trendy boutique hotel (URBN) but a fraction of the price at about $45 a night.

If you’ve got business around the Xu Jia Hui area then I stayed in the Jianguo Hotel for a month and it’s the best place in the area. Very convenient for the subway, a cake shop in reception, and mere steps away from the joy that is Harley’s bar.

If you want to imagine you’re not in a city at all but a peaceful country garden, then the Rui-Jin Hotel has all of that, and a couple of nice bars in the same complex too.