Having stayed here several times, I can without reservation give this hotel perfect marks for comfort, food quality, service quality, staff excellence, and overall hospitality. I am a frequent traveler, both for business and personal trips. I stay here for business, and have had the hotel cater/co-manage huge events for vips. There is no element of conference planning and hospitality that I would be fearful to entrust to the management and staff of this world-class hotel. Suites are well appointed, tastefully decorated, and impeccably clean. Staff is like family -- warm and welcoming -- and no request is too difficult for them to accommodate.

Room: Very spacious. Great view of the Huangpu River. Just don't forget to draw the curtain if you plan to sleep early in any of the corner rooms at the River View Wing since the neon lights from the next door building will surely brighten up your room and keep you awake until they are turned off at 11 pm. :D

Service: Friendly English-speking staffs will attend to all your needs...depending on the skin-tone order. Being a tanned Malaysian in a very fair community, I always had my service requests deprioritized if I am in a queue with other hotel guests...particularly at the concierge counter. The reception counter's service was great though...especially with the presence of a lady manager from Singapore. Sorry, I forgot your name.but, thank you, 'neighbour'! :)

Room Service: On the other hand, the service will be fast if I called from my hotel room. I was bored one weekend and had asked for the free DVD to watch in the room. All the movies that I wanted to watch were out and I was left with just Chinese movies (of course, with NO subtitles). I dropped a comment through the feedback form on my way to work the next morning. To my surprise, I had a box with 20 DVDs (all English movies, of course) on my bed when I came back from work that evening. Thank you!

Surrounding: Very hectic. The Historical Bund is very interesting but you have to keep sqeezing yourself in between people who spit everywhere and talk loudly (practically yelling). At the Pearl Tower, prepare to find yourself suffocating among the crowd who loves to feel each others bodys' warmths. Literally, the 3 feet personal space is not recognized as part of a human right in this area. You'll be pushed and shoved the entire time you queue up to for anything here (to get to the tower entrance, to get a piece of Subway sandwich, etc).

Food: I can't say much on the food prepared by the hotel since most of the time, I was out to scout for Muslim (halal) food, which happened to be easily found around the area. Yes, you have to get on a cab to go to the Muslim food area. And you can also get the halal "yang-ra" (skewed mutton) at The Bund if you can catch the Chinese Muslim guy with the white 'kopiah' (google kopiah up if you want to see how it looks like) on a motorbike.

All in all, I will still opt for this hotel if I have to go back to Shanghai for a business trip. On the personal trips to China, I'd rather be hiking and camping in Kunming! :D

I stayed there on my business trip. If you are sightseeing in SH, suggest you stay in Puxi.

It's typical of Shangri la, big and grand. Marble and gold color ornaments, very extravagant looking and nothing subtle about it.

Located by the bank, about 5-8 mins from the nearest tube station. A lot of restaurants nearby. However, pudong is modern, lacking in character, not a place you will enjoying walking around.

Room is spacious, so is the bathroom. Standard is high as usual. Breakfast buffet is great. Lots of choices especially Asian food. You will need to spend a good 2 hours to try all the food there. Huge variety indeed but a bit disappointed with their choice of cereals, and also the cold cuts can be of better quality. No biggie though. The breakfast place is huge but I prefer a cozier setting.

Service was good, check in was fast and room service was fast as well. All in all the stay was pleasant.

Gym is good, the pool was ok and adequate.

No surprises and when you are paying about US$200 per night, you expect that.

Second stay- continued to be impressed by the friendly and courteous staff, clean and well laid out rooms, good food.
Overall a great hotel to stay at.