Shanghai, meaning ‘on the sea’, is one of the world’s largest and busiest seaports. Now seen as China’s most cosmopolitan city, it can rival the likes of Bangkok and Singapore for superb shopping experiences.
A German-built train hurtles past a man in plastic sandals who’s lugging a two-wheeled wooden cart laden with cardboard to recycle. A forest of glass and steel, including the highest hotel in the world and a spaceship-shaped pinnacle, faces neoclassical and Art Deco stone and brick edifices. Tycoons toast with a glass of Dom Perignon just around the corner from the first meeting site of the Chinese Communist Party. Shanghainese, Spanish and Japanese socialites shop for $1,000 party outfits a few blocks from where other Shanghainese women are emptying out chamber pots.
This is Shanghai. China and the West, materialist capitalism and Maoist Communism, the fabulously rich and miserably poor, cultures from every corner of the globe, and the past, present and future jostle together in this densest of Chinese cities. The chaotic mix is exhilarating, almost overwhelming, but not novel; Shanghai has long been the most cosmopolitan place in China, the most open to everyone and everything.
Hong Kong is one of the best loved cities in the Far East and a great launch pad into the region. A melting pot of eastern and western cultures, it is a vibrant and colourful city where a mu...
Grand Hyatt Shanghai
Rising above Pudong, Shanghai’s financial and business district, the Grand Hyatt Shanghai occupies the 53rd to...
The Westin Shanghai
There is perhaps no other place that best represents the city of Shanghai than the famous 2-km (1-mile) riverf...
Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai
The first Four Seasons Hotel to be established in mainland China opened in Shanghai in 2002. Situated between ...
