Chengdu: Shangri-La Chengdu (September 2011)

My spouse and I stayed at the Shangri-La Chengdu in early September 2011 for three nights. We arrived quite late on our first night (after 2:30 am) and had hoped to be given a "Surprise! We’ve upgraded you to make your day better" room, but we were not. We had booked the deluxe room, which was one step up from the superior category. It was difficult to ascertain the differences in the room categories online (the sizes stated were all similar), but from some photos that we saw, it appeared that the deluxe room had a sofa and chair and was configured to look larger. The room was spacious (including a small sofa, comfy chair, and coffee table), as was the bathroom, which featured plenty of counter and wall storage space a separate soaking bathtub and glass-enclosed shower (and of course, a TV near the tub!). Two complimentary bottles of water were in the room when we arrived, and were replenished at evening turndown as well as when our room was cleaned each day.

The public spaces in the hotel are attractive, including the bustling Lobby Lounge where there is live nightly entertainment provided by a pianist. There is no smoking in the public areas of this hotel, but there are ashtrays by the front entrance for that purpose. The hotel seems to have a lot of convention/meeting space on the lower level, which also houses a salon (very inexpensive, haircuts were about $8 USD, I think), clothing store, bank, and Bentley dealership (just in case your Bentley was one of your forgotten items!). There is no ATM machine directly in the hotel, but during business hours, when the bank is open, it is possible to walk from the hotel hallway through the bank to the street entrance and use the ATM machine. (The machine is accessible from the exterior of the hotel at all hours.) The hotel has several places to eat and drink in addition to the Lobby Lounge. Shang Palace serves Chinese cuisine, while Cafe Z serves Mediterranean food and has both indoor and outdoor seating, although we suspect that the outdoor seating was used at lunchtime only because we never saw anyone out there. Mooney’s Irish Pub featured live music at night, as well as indoor and outdoor seating. The swimming pool at this hotel was the least decorative one that we saw on our trip to China, but it was still attractive and perhaps even more importantly, the pool was actually designed for swimming laps! There was no outdoor area attached to the pool, but attendants and a lifeguard were present. The fitness center was large but seemed sparsely equipped (I did not use it though, so I could be wrong). We utilized the hotel transfer from the airport, which although twice the price of the transfer offered by our guide and three-quarters of the price of a taxicab, turned out to be an excellent decision because our flight, which was supposed to arrive just after midnight, was over two hours late, yet the hotel car was waiting for us as we exited baggage claim.

The hotel is well-located, near three bridges that will carry you across the river to a street lined with bars/cafes, although most are not open until the evening. Nearby is Lan Kwai Fong (LKF), an upscale and hip shopping and entertainment complex (again, most restaurants/bars do not open until evening, only the chain restaurant, Tony Romas, is immediately recognizable as a restaurant rather than a bar). Directly in front of the hotel lining one of the bridges is the Verandah restaurant, which seemed very popular with the locals (we were told that it was pricey, however). The foot, bicycle, and motorbike traffic was heavy on both the streets and the sidewalks, so take care when walking around. There are a few restaurants directly outside the doors of the hotel on an adjacent street, including a Chinese restaurant (it looked great but had no English menu), a German brewhouse called Munchen Bier Reise (which we wouldn't recommend based on our own experience), and a pizza and pasta restaurant (which looked like it had potential). Amidst these restaurants is a very small storefront selling alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and some limited snack food (for example, I wanted a chocolate candy bar, but they didn’t sell anything recognizable as that).

We had a great stay at the Shangri-La Chengdu, and would probably stay there again when visiting the city. (We had also considered the Sofitel, Kempinski, and Sheraton, but we did not see any of those hotels on our visit.)