Shanghai's Best Boutique Hotels

In an about-face away from the luxury skyscraper hotels that crowd the city, hoteliers are opening hip, unique, designer accommodations for travelers

by Frederik Balfour

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Vertically challenged, Shanghai certainly is not, and until recently, if you were looking for five-star accommodations, you could count on riding an elevator 40 or 50 floors before even getting to the hotel lobby. The JW Marriott may boast the world's highest library—on the 59th floor—and the view from the 88th floor of the Grand Hyatt is positively stunning, yet these colossal structures can be a bit intimidating, even if you don't suffer from vertigo.

Luckily, in the past few years, Shanghai has started to sprout a number of boutique hotels that offer more than the cookie-cutter luxury found at the major international chains. Most of them have fewer than 50 rooms and offer a more intimate and unique hotel experience, making them a destination in themselves, especially for weekenders visiting Shanghai. Here are five of the top choices.

The newly opened Jia Shanghai is undeniably the hippest boutique hotel in the city. Housed in a 1920s-era building just off fashionable Nanjing Road West, Jia has nothing more than a modest nameplate on the door, but word is spreading fast that it's the top choice among travelers looking for a unique experience. The brainchild of Singapore businesswoman Yenn Wong (who also opened the Philippe Starck-designed Jia Hong Kong), Jia Shanghai is a "designer-led" hotel with 55 rooms, ranging from a 35-square-meter studio for $285 to a 160-square-meter penthouse at $2,570 per night. All rooms include breakfast and all-day beverages. There's also free evening wine served in a lobby that contains art installations and an eclectic mix of bespoke furniture by award-winning interior designer Andre Fu of Hong Kong.

Returning to the Height of Decadence

Wong, who has won acclaim for her business savvy and style (and is still under 30) has an unerring eye for detail, from the porcelain tea cups in the rooms, to the funky Gio Ponti chairs and sofas by Antonio Citterio, to her choice of chefs. The Issimo restaurant, run by celebrity chef Salvatore Cuomo, has arguably the best thin-crust pizza outside Naples and an extensive wine selection that would satisfy the most discerning oenophile. Rooms also boast state-of-the-art sound systems with iPod docking stations, DVD home theaters, and Wi-Fi.

If you are looking to recapture the Shanghai of the 1930s when life in the "Paris of the East" reached the height of decadence, a couple of nights at the Mansion is de rigeur. This lovingly restored colonial French manor-style house was built by the city's most notorious gangster of the era. The lobby is an emporium of period furniture including a wind-up phonograph, art deco desks, and original photographs.

Dean Yin, chief executive officer of Boutique Hotels International, a private hotel consortium, has spared no expense in recreating the opulence and luxury of former times, though some of the rooms, with enormous beds and Jacuzzis, feel more Vegas than colonial China. Housed in the heart of the former French Concession, the Mansion has a superb top-floor dining room and terrace offering a terrific view of one of the few neighborhoods to be spared the wrecker's ball. Its 30 rooms range from $550 to $850 per night.

A Carbon-Neutral Hotel

For green-minded visitors to Shanghai, URBN Hotels boasts the country's first carbon-neutral hotel. Energy consumption by guests—including staff commutes and food and beverage delivery—are tracked to come up with a carbon footprint for each stay. The hotel then neutralizes the stay through the purchase of carbon credits. The hotel also builds with reclaimed hardwoods and old Shanghai bricks, and uses eco-friendly solutions including passive solar shades and water-based air conditioning, as well as lighting timers. URBN's rooms have a distinctly contemporary design with large windows, freestanding bathtubs in the bedroom, stone walls in the showers, and clean lines accentuating the use of natural wood and light.