Renaissance Yangtze Shanghai Hotel

A popular place to stay for business & pleasure travellers alike, the five-star hotel Renaissance Yangtze Shanghai Hotel on Yan An Xi Road definitely met our needs. For starters, the service was impeccable. Front desk associates could be heard giving directions to hotel guests in Mandarin, Japanese, and English, and room service was timely and professional.

All the rooms at the Renaissance Hotel, even ones without a view, were exceptionally designed to cater to a guest's travelling needs. Each room has access to broadband internet, as well as satellite television, and each was tastefully decorated to provide guests with ample lighting & workspace. And, saving the best for last, my personal favourite: the energy-efficient design found in each guest room.

Upon entering a room, you must slide your key card into a designated slot to "power up" the room; when you exit, removing the key card immediately cuts all electricity to the lights and applicances within the room - if only all the hotels in the States were so energy-friendly! (And I wonder if all the ones in Shanghai are as well!) Also, an added bonus to those so inclined, I constantly spied visitors in the lobby making use of the wireless internet access.

The only inconvenience of the Renaissance Hotel was its distance from the Pudong Airport. A drive that can take 45 minutes at the best of times takes much longer during midday traffic. However, the hotel does boast an easily accessible location and an upscale feel in the heart of a business/trade neighborhood.

The hotel houses two bar/lounges and five restaurants serving a range of cuisines (Mediterranean, Cantonese, Shanghainese, and Japanese). We only tried two of the five, opting instead to venture into the surrounding area in search of more international fare. For our first dinner in Shanghai, we ate at the Japanese restaurant in the lobby; dinner here was nothing special. What we enjoyed much more was the buffet breakfast the next morning in the hotel's "international restaurant." The buffet offered an astonishing array of foods, including fruits, fresh wontons, congee, pasta, and made-to-order waffles.

All in all, I would heartily recommend both the Renaissance Hotel as well as the international breakfast buffet!