I chose this hotel because it was the cheapest selection in an air & hotel package that I bought. I've visited Shanghai before (in 1981 and 2000 on tours) and was staying only 3 nights this time, primarily to visit the Shanghai Museum and to see what's new in Pudong.
The hotel is setback from Xietu Road behind the tall white Asia Trust building. It is accessed via a lane with the lighted hotel sign overhead. It is an easy 15 minute walk from the Damuqiao Metro Station (Line 4) with wheeled luggage in tow. Their street signs are in Chinese and English. They also have these diagram signs hanging over the streets summarizing the next major and minor cross streets. You just have to look for them amongst all the clutter of commercial signage.
The lobby is well decorated and the front desk always staffed with one English speaking receptionist (a young lady) and a Duty Manager (a middle-aged Chinese gentlemen who only speaks Mandarin). Both are friendly. I communicate with the accomodating Managers via the receptionist or just via a lot of hand motions. There's no bellhop--so you take the elevator and find your room and then fiddle with your card key and lock on your own (instructions on key card are also in English).
The rooms are moderately large but plain, a bit drab. A desk with broadband box. A sitting chair. CRT TV. The Heater/AC unit is ceiling mounted and controlled via a remote. Carpeting is an old style gray that looks worn. The curtain is a mylar type of material; I didn't realize until two days later that there were also sheers behind them which would have kept the room brighter but still afford privacy from the adjacent office building.
Bathrooms, strangely, are on the fancy side--bowl washbasins and glassed in shower with a floor-to-ceiling, partially-frosted window into the room. (There's a blind for privacy.) But no built-in hair dryer. Marble floors and walls. However, the paint around the ceiling fan was peeling.
Therein lies the problem--the language barrier. There are four switches in the hallway--all unmarked. I thought the fan didn't work because when I activated the switch nothing happened. I called the front desk and the duty manager came up. He showed me that the switch I activated was for the "Do Not Disturb" indicator outside my room and showed me the correct switch for the fan. I'm sure most the previous guest couldn't figure out how to activate the fan and that why the paint peeled. (They need to label those 4 switches--hopefully with pictograms.)
The remote for the Heater/AC is in Chinese and I couldn't figure out how to use it. I called the front desk and the duty manager came up to my room and set up the remote for Heat and showed me how to adjust the temperature setpoint. When I accidently turned off the heater the next day, I brought the remote in my shirt pocket to show another Manager in the Lobby and he came up with me to set it up again.
They have a Business Center which they seem to use primarily for storaging luggage. But it does have a PC and printer. I had to check in for my outbound flight to avoid the lines at the airport the next morning, so I paid 10 Yuan for a hour's use. ( I'd paid only 2 Yuan at an Internet Cafe in Kaiping, Guangdong, a few days earlier and my friends said that 2 Yuan was high.)
One thing that irked me was that they wanted a 100 Yuan cash deposit for their hotel room smartcard key. You couldn't charge the deposit on a credit card.
When I asked if they had loaner hair dryers, they said yes, but there was a 30 Yuan cash deposit. (It was brought up to my room by the Duty Manager who took my 50 and gave me change and another deposit receipt).
When I checked out, I got 130 Yuan deposits back in cash. That's why I still have 90 Yuan left over after I returned to the U.S.
Damuqiao Road from the Metro Station to Xietu Road is lined with stores: a Bank of China wtih 24 Hr. ATM, several fancy bakeries, small grocery markets, a KFC, various take-out places wtih strange looking food item. There are many more restaurants on street parallel to Damuqiao that's one block over towards the east (the street where the Asia Trust building entrance is on).
If the management made some very minor changes and investment, the hotel could be a lot more attractive to foreign visitors. Right now its aimed at guests that can read Chinese, or foreigners who don't mind spending the time to interact with them (isn't that what travelling and exploring is all about?)
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