The Shangri-la Pudong is one of the top 5-star hotels in fast growing urban Shanghai. Strategically located in the Pudong business district among a sea of office buildings and opposite the riverbank offering great views of the famous Shanghai Bund.


Arriving

My room package ( call by Shangri-La as “Value Rate” ) includes among many benefits; round trip airport limousine transfer, complimentary breakfast, internet and laundry. The new Shanghai Pudong airport Terminal 2 is massive, and just getting from the airbridge to the immigration counters took 20 mins by foot.

Upon exiting from the customs, a hotel staff was on standby to greet me and escort me to my limousine car, a brand new Audi A6. Also provided in the car were cool towels and mineral waters. I had a most enjoyable 40 mins ride to the hotel listening to my own CD thru the car’s excellent audio sound system and also chatting with my limousine driver. Upon arrival at the hotel, a nice lady was on standby to greet me and handle the check-in formalities speedily. I was escorted to my room in no time.


The Room

The Shangri-La has two wings, two separate buildings actually connected by a pathway. The “old” Shangri-La River Wing features rooms with classical décor and and most have direct views of the Bund. The newer Grand Tower Wing features modern contemporary rooms with just a light touch of oriental ascent. I booked the standard room in the Grand Tower which they called “Executive Room”.

The Room definitely has a high “wow” factor and is much better looking in actual compared to the pictures on the hotel’s website. It’s feels new, luxurious and refreshing. Every part of the room’s wall is covered with either exotic wallpapers or luxurious panels made from very high quality veneer wood. Well designed lighting effects give the room a lot of cheerfulness while maintaining the overall luxurious feel. The room design is also highly intelligent. Segregate clearly into “zones”, there is a ultra spacious working desk ( which also can double as a vanity area ), a comfy sofa chair by the window, build in wall closet. Floor to ceiling windows offers magnificent view of the Pudong skyscrapers and unlike many hotel rooms, it’s not obstructed by any bulky furniture. There’s a construction site visible from the window but it wasn’t noisy at all. In fact, I think I prefer this view over the more expensive Bund View rooms. The room feels very spacious because it’s a corner room and also the design of the room makes it feel spacious, despite the room being only about 40m2.

The bathroom is all marble and glass, with dual light modes, dual sinks, tub and a separate shower cubicle with rainforest overhead shower. It’s a full ensuite and also feel spacious too. There’s also a LCD TV above the bathtub. Toiletries are L’Occitane ( imported, not China made ). Water pressure could do with some improvement though. I’m not sure why but almost all the hotels I stayed in China have to me inadequate water pressure.

Room amenities are lacking in nothing. There’s a Philips rotating 32” LCD TV with a DVD player and also wireless in-room internet connection. A spacious electronic safe is included in the closet area and of course, minibar with free coffee/tea. The bed is ultra-comfortable, one of the best I have slept in and featured luxurious 200+ thread count linens. The hotel is obviously very confident about the quality of their beds that they are actually selling the pillows and bedsheets.

Overall, everything about this hotel room is very high class, evident from the décor to the furnishing to the design. This is the best hotel room I have stayed in China, far exceeding the other two 5-star hotels that I have stayed before, ie the Le Meridien or Eton hotel in Shanghai. Only the top-of-the-line hotels in Hong Kong and Tokyo have better rooms.



Common Areas

The common areas of Shangri-la are very luxurious. The hotel owner obviously spared no expenses in decorating this hotel to the max. There’s good “flow” from one area to another. The Grand Tower lobby features high ceiling and veneer wood panels, glass and magnificent crystal chandeliers decorating every corner. The style is a mix of classic and contemporary.

I took a peek at some of the restaurants in the hotel and they are all very posh looking with a price-tag to match. I did not have the chance to try out any of the restaurants though except the morning breakfast which was included in my room rate.

I also took a peek at the Horizon Club Lounge and was impressed by the cozy atmosphere and great views of both Bund and Pudong area. It’s very spacious and posh. In retrospect, I should probably have booked the Horizon floor.


Service

The Shangri-la Pudong manage to impress with consistently good service standards throughout my stay. It shows that the staff were all very well trained by the management. An added advantage is that most staff seems to speak much better English compared to other hotels in China that I have stayed in. They have a sincerity to serve and yet have nothing of the “snottiness’ that are quite common among some of the hotel staff in China’s hotels.




Location

The Shangri-La Pudong is located in Pudong financial district, great if you are there for business, but not so great if you are there for sight seeing as besides being connected to a mall, there isn’t nothing much within walking distance for tourist. The other side at Puxi will be more interesting. Getting around in Shanghai could be a hassle nowadays with traffic jam so it’s important to take this into account when considering the hotel for it’s location.



The big “BUT”……

At last, nothing is perfect. An almost perfect stay was spoiled by the sub-par quality of the breakfast served at the Yi Café. I have been looking forward to this buffet as I heard so much about the Shangri-la breakfast being the “best in town”. While the variety and selection was impressive, the quality was not. The bread taste rather stale, like leftover bread, the orange juice was bitter and the eggs were not correctly done. It’s very run of the mill. Most of the oriental selections are cooked too oily. And there’s a strong smell of oil permeating the café which was rather unpleasant. The food was by no means unedible, just not of the quality I expected. Also, an incident on improperly washed vegetables caused me much embarrassment when inviting my colleague to join me for breakfast one morning. Although the managers of the café apologize profusely and waived the breakfast charges, still it should never have happened in the first place.

This was unfortunate as I observed that the café staff was attentive and tried their best to provide good service to the guests. However, the food quality was really a let down here esp when other parts of the hotel were universally excellent. Perhaps my expectation had been unnaturally high because I heard so much about the “out of the world” and the best in Shanghai which turned out to be very disappointing.



Conclusion

I had wondered aloud to myself what to give the Pudong Shangri-La, ie a great but short of excellent 4/5 or the perfect 5/5. Without a doubt, this is hands down the best and most luxurious Shangri-la hotel that I have stayed in, which is not saying much because the other Shangri-las I have experienced are frankly rather mediocre. However, this hotel is also the best hotel I have stayed so far in China. It stops short of perfection by the sub-par breakfast, but that does not distract it from other areas which are all excellent. Overall, a wonderful hotel but still short of greatness. So it’s still a 4/5 hotel but it’s very very close to 5/5.

I will definitely want to return to this hotel again in future, maybe to try their Horizon Rooms this time. Perhaps in a future stay, if everything is fine, I would be able to revise my rating to 5/5.