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The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong
Dining outside on the one-table, stone terrace of the Fairmont Peace Hotel’s ninth-floor Cathay Room restaurant is unforgettable. Look down to The Bund’s busy pedestrian traffic, and across the Huangpu River (continually illuminated by the vividly lit tourist boats, interspersed with cargo barges) to the 21st-century high-rises of Pudong.
The 270-room Fairmont Peace Hotel re-opened on July 28, 2010 under general manager Kamal Naamani. Much of the original 1929 building, then headquarters for Sir Victor Sassoon’s trading empire, remains. The 3,300 square foot Sassoon Suite, a complicated C-shape, has polished parquet floors with thick rugs and elaborately-carved original panelling. You have a proper office, excellent WiFi, and dining for 10.
There are no fewer than 24 sizeable windows and one massive semi-circular window, and some of the rooms’ all- white ceilings are like recessed three- dimensional wedding cake frosting. The marble bathroom has a massive oval jacuzzi. The Jazz Bar is as popular as ever; the octagonal atrium invariably has locals taking photographs. New are the Willow Stream Spa, a Technogym and a 40-foot pool.
www.fairmont.com
The 272-room Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund opened April 18, 2011 – the quintessential marriage of old and new. The heritage wing still has its pair of century-old, quarter-circle elevators, now operated by chic lady bellhops in purple button hats. Walk down 14 gleaming honey-marble steps to Peacock Alley, the tea lounge from which you can look down at the café below. The new 24-floor tower holds an excellent business centre, a 24-hour gym and a 65-foot indoor pool and such rooms as 404, which has superb cross-river views.
The 100-foot counter in the Long Bar still has its 101-year-old ceiling, and woodwork has been exactly restored. Across the heritage lobby, Pelham’s has a working kitchen, separated from the panelled dining area by a full glass wall (your Australian Black Angus rib eye, with a palette of baby veggies, comes with a Laguiole knife). As GM Dirk De Cuyper says, Waldorf Astoria is about details. Butlers here wear full morning suits with two, rather than one, front chains. Bedroom drawers are lined with fine tissue, the toiletries are Ferragamo or, in suites, Hermès. The buffet breakfast includes Veuve- Clicquot champagne.
www.waldorfastoria.com
Across the river, The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong bellmen wear trousers held up by braces, and grandpa-style flat caps. The Cesar Pelli-designed building, which soars through 58 floors (the 285-room hotel is floors 39 and up) opened on June 21, 2010 under GM Rainer Burkle. The first guest, arriving in a Maybach, was the head of Apple, China. Scena, the zigzag-shaped fun Italian restaurant, leads off the 51st-floor lobby. A welcome card on the pale wood table shows a cartoon of energetic servers, with their names, and, inside, a cartoon of you, the honoured guest.
Afterwards, head up – in an elevator lined with empty wine bottles – to the 58th-floor rooftop lounge, Flair. Here, outdoor terraces allow floodlit Bund views. Inside, recycled wood, stones from Japanese river beds and cosy sofas by working fires nurture a buzz of successful Shanghai. The 55th-floor wellness complex includes a 24-hour Technogym, a 20-metre infinity pool and vitality hot tub, and a 10-room ESPA. The bedrooms offer Bose sound and freestanding copper bathtubs or, in the 400 square metre jewellery store-like Presidential Suite, a three-metre circular jacuzzi tub.
www.ritzcarlton.com
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