China’s manic financial capital now offers a pitch-perfect sanctuary
by Jean Tang
To gauge the vision of any five-star hotel, look to its business center. This room, even in the finest hotels, is often just a cold, cubicled afterthought tacked on to increase function, not enhance form.
Not so at the Pudong Shangri-La in Shanghai. Last winter, its second tower provided 375 desperately needed rooms, suites and conference facilities to a luxe-starved Lujiazui, the financial hub of Shanghai’s futuristic Pudong district. Sure, the mismatched towers — the old one (built in 1998) squat and neutral, the new one a gleaming, cross-cut V — stamp an incongruous footprint on the skyline.
But step inside, and the hotel is seamless. The Shangri-La brand has always been about whispers, not shouts. The scent of lilies lightly peppers the lobby. Illuminated pillars nudge the eye upward toward crystal (tasteful, not gaudy), latticework (just a touch), glass and marble.
Likewise, the ballrooms, including one that can accommodate 1,700, curve sinuously into common spaces. And the subtle dazzle doesn’t end upon reaching the business center, easily mistaken for a sultry lounge.
The same principles extend to the tower’s eateries. Opt from among Iron Chef–style open-stage kitchens (Yi Café), private rooms with vistas (Gui Hua Lou), a transparent sushi bar (Nadaman) and the jewel box at the top (Jade on 36 Bar).
In the rooms, architects have done away with the fourth wall entirely, replacing it with glass affording panoramic views. At night, one is tempted to switch off the plasma and gaze at the searchlights. Nix that: Shanghai beckons, and that’s far from subtle.
Ritz-Carlton has added a 24/7 “technology butler” at most locations to handle all your IT needs. That’s surely more practical than the “sleep concierge” at the Benjamin in New York, who can help you choose from among 11 types of pillows — or send up a white-noise machine or warm milk and cookies.