The Best Places to Stay in Lan Ni Du & Ti Lan Qiao

Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the Huangpu River from every room at this Forbes Five Star hotel on the Pudong side of Shanghai, where the skyline is newer and the architecture doesn't do the nostalgic Bund thing. Some 4,000 works of contemporary art fill the property, curated down to the last hanging angle. The spa has a separate lounge just for foot massages, a tepidarium, and a crystal steam room, which tells you how seriously they take the whole operation.

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The Long Bar's 110-foot mahogany counter is the old Shanghai Club's most famous survivor, painstakingly restored from archival photographs, and it sets the tone for this luxury hotel on the Bund. Two buildings in one, the neoclassical wing houses the suites while a modern tower holds the rest of the 260 rooms, all of them large, all of them equipped with Japanese electronic toilets and mirror-embedded TVs. Forbes Four Star. The in-house florist and personal shopper are not a joke.

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Art deco gets a Pudong makeover here, all cream marble bathrooms with gold accents and floor-to-ceiling views of the Bund. The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai is a full-scale luxury hotel that earns its Forbes Four Star and Michelin Key without making you feel like you're staying inside a brochure. The rooftop bar, Flair, draws a crowd that's genuinely split between locals and guests, which is the clearest sign a hotel has figured something out.

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The Park Hyatt occupies floors 79 through 93 of the Shanghai World Financial Center, which means the infinity pool sits on the 85th floor and the views from your room are, by any measure, absurd. Inside, the palette runs to gray, cream, and dark wood, the whole thing feeling more like a very well-appointed private residence than a tower hotel. Contemporary Chinese art and the occasional patch of grass keep it from reading too serious. A Forbes Four Star property.

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Floors 84 to 120 of China's tallest building, which means the Bund, the Huangpu River, and the Oriental Pearl Tower arranged below you like a scale model. This luxury hotel keeps 131 rooms and 34 suites, each angled differently by the tower's spiral form, all with full-length windows and round-the-clock butler service. Diptyque and Hermès in the bath, a spa, a pool, and seven restaurants, one of them up on the 120th floor.

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The rooftop draws almost exclusively young Shanghainese, which tells you everything about how this hotel plays its hand. Ian Schrager's EDITION brand runs on glamorous public spaces over quiet rooms, and the Shanghai outpost delivers: five bars, two of them on the roof, a full nightclub, Japanese and Cantonese restaurants, and a modern British kitchen from Jason Atherton. The 145 rooms are sleek and light-toned, many facing the Bund.

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Foster and Partners designed this luxury hotel on the Bund, and the 32-foot lobby ceiling with its jade-and-marble tile makes the intent clear before you've even checked in. Rooms on the upper floors look out over the historic riverfront skyline, and the afternoon tea service has developed its own following. The crowd skews toward Shanghai's fashion-forward set, which makes the whole thing feel less stuffy than the opulence might suggest.

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The top-floor Char Bar has views of the Pudong skyline that make the room feel like a screensaver, except you're holding a drink. This design-forward boutique hotel on the Bund pairs high-end rooms with interiors that swing hard between ancient Chinese motifs and bold contemporary color, which could easily go wrong and mostly doesn't. Many rooms look out over the Huangpu River, and the riverside café downstairs gives you the same view at breakfast.

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Full-length windows in every room frame the Pudong skyline from inside the Lujiazui business district, which is either the view or the commute, depending on why you're here. This is a luxury hotel pitched squarely at business travelers, with Art Deco rooms that manage to feel considered rather than corporate. The spa sits on the top floor, the indoor pool shares that same skyline, and the restaurant options run from Italian to teppanyaki to an extravagant Cantonese spread across five private dining rooms.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels