The city hotel is quite a nice place, especially for the cost, given its location. They are undergoing a renovation right now, so occasionally we were disturbed by carpet shampooing or elevator repairs, but all in all no big deal.

The rooms have all of the basic things that a traveler needs, a soft bed (by China standards, anyway), a nice LCD TV, and the usual suspects of international news programming.

The included breakfast buffet was very good, a nice selection of western and chinese foods, and an omelet bar.

My only complaint is that it is a few blocks away from the metro station (Shanxi South Rd), but this was only an issue when we got caught out in the rain one afternoon, and my fault for not bringing an umbrella.

In addition the Pinnacle Peak restaurant at the hotel is quite possibly the best hotel hamburger that we have ever had outside of the USA; the decor is such that you would swear they packed up a kitsch western bar and burger joint in Tucson, AZ and shipped it here to live inside of the city hotel.

I am actually a resident in the City Apartments adjacent to City Hotel and have access to the gym. My review is confined only to the gym. It's ok for what I want to do conveniently, but I plan to join a real gym. The gym has 2 decent treadmills from a not very famous brand (and calibrated to what seems to be specific 'Chinese kilometers'). The elliptical trainer is fine. The amount of space that can be used for core work out is great. The pull-down weight bar equipment (not sure of the official name of this) is broken, has still not been repaired since I moved here over 2 wks ago. The towels sometimes look like they might not be very clean, and the bubbler water is lukewarm and I suspect it is filled up with unfiltered tap water. Summary: not a great gym, but hey, this is not a high end hotel, so it's actually good for what you pay.

The Good:
1. Fantastic location on the shopping street of Shanxi Road (walkable to West Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road).

2. Bargain price relative to the location

3. Breakfast included in the price of the room

4. Western plug in the room so no need for an adaptor

The Bad:
1. No soap or shampoo in the room

2. Filthy carpets in the room

3. Internet not included in the price of the room (60RMB/day)

4. Overpriced drinks at the bar (40RMB/beer), which is normal for hotels in China.

The Ugly:
1. I specified a non-smoking room upon booking. Upon arrival they game me a smoking room and told me it was a non-smoking room. When I complained they said they didn't have any more non-smoking rooms but that I could pick from 3 smoking rooms. When I complained some more, they magically found a non-smoking room.

2. The was VERY VERY VERY loud construction happening from 9am-6pm. There was no mention of this when I booked the room but they did mention it when I checked it. It was too late to change my reservation and switch hotels, so I was stuck with massive amounts of noise during the day.

After many experience- all hotel categories over the world- I can recomand this hotel.
Check-in: nice service bellboy/lagguage service, (arrive 1:30 p.m.) very quickly check-in .Reception lady-she speak English, but with China accent :-)
Gastronomy : very nice breakfast with local food/cheeses. Very quickly tea/coffee service.
Room: not new, but clean, staff was very friendly and helpfull. Bathroom with small bath (for my sice body :-).
Check-out:very quickly, sharp invoice and pyment , help with lagguage, quickly taxi, I took taxi to RailExpress station to Pudong airport, all perfect.