Great Hotels | Shanghai and Hangzhou
As friends know, we love staying in and also visiting great hotel properties whenever we travel. Shanghai offered some extraordinary hotels. There were of course countless ones we didn't see.... but here are a few we did.
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| IMAGE from the Peninsula Shanghai web site. |
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| The Peninsula Shanghai
This new property opened in the Fall 2009, it is the first new major structure on this end of the historic Bund in decades.
Link to the Peninsula
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| A great view to the river... and the Shanghai People's Memorial. |
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| A separate dressing room. |
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| The bath features an amazing bas relief panel. |
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Park Hyatt Shanghai
The hotel is on he upper most floors (79th to 93rd) of the tallest tower in Shanghai. The building was designed by the American firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox | KPF.
Link to the Park Hyatt
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| IMAGE from the architects KPF web site with the Park Hyatt Shanghai being the tallest on the right featuring the opening at the top of the tower. |
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| Grand Hyatt center - Park Hyatt right. |
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| View from our room 8001. Left is the SOM designed Jin Mao Tower with the Grand Hyatt in the upper floors. The distance is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. |
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| Floor plan of the 80th. |
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| Beautiful box of bathroom amenities. |
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| Sadly not part of our room. Here the pool on the 87th shows up dark in the photo - but was very bright and airy feeling in person. |
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| Entry to the spa area. |
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| Design detail outside our room. |
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| Another part of the spa. |
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| Elevator lobby with the call button glowing. |
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| Our tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center. |
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| The Jin Mao Tower across the street. |
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| The view from 8001. |
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The Langham Yangtze Boutique Hotel
Our home for four nights. Location was very central, right by People's Square
and a subway line. Somehow, this wasn't our most favorite, and ultimately moved
our final night in Shanghai to try the Park Hyatt.
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| The original 1930's heritage Art Deco exterior. |
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| Lobby stairs. Each of these images are from the Langham web site. |
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| We could only wish our room had been configured this nicely... we should have asked to see other rooms. This was my mistake! |
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| The Puli entry just off the driveway. |
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We were just visitors . . .
The Puli Hotel
They use in the marketing of this hotel that it is an urban resort. And true to word, it is the most calming and wonderful atmosphere once entering this property... totally leaving the hustle bustle of the big city behind.
Click to go to the Puli web site.
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| Entering the entry vesibule - turn right at the urn for the lobby... |
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| The soaring high walls of the vestibule. |
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| The main lobby - wow! |
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| Registration |
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| View out from the lobby level. |
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| The lobby bar and lounge. |
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Hangzhou
To the west of this city is an amazing resort complex - the Amanfayun of Aman Resorts. This is certainly one that we wished we had the chance to stay at . . . at least we were lucky to be invited by the General Manager Ian White to have lunch and a tour of this amazing mountainside property.
The Aman to create this resort, was asked by local authorities to take a part of a ancient village comprising 47 dwellings covering over 34 acres. Parts of this village date to the Tang Dynasty.
This image shows the village complex and main local walking / cart path transversing through the resort . . . Aman has maintained this for local access by villagers and others as there is a temple complex just at the lower end of the resort.
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| IMAGE from the cover of the Amanfayun brochure. |
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| The walk from the entry drive to the reception building. |
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| The Library |
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| This is the walking / cart path, the Fayun Pathway, that transverses the Amanfayun. |
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| Here a side path off the main one - this leads to houses used by the Amanfayun. |
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| A house entry - now used as private suite. |
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| The building uses an open plan to the suite. |
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| This looked very cozy! |
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| With no views, it is really about being a retreat set amongst nature. |
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| Incredible roof tile patterns everywhere. |
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| An outdoor lounge reading spot. |
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| One of the spa's private tubs. |
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| The bar |
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| One of two restaurants |
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| On departure from our mid-day visit, we noticed that even the driveway was masterfully paved. |
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