Our trip to Shanghai, China had us staying at the Renaissance Shanghai Yu Garden hotel. It was reasonably priced as a mid point hotel, and was conveniently located for sightseeing and other tourist attractions in central Shanghai.

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Review: Renaissance Shanghai Yu Garden Hotel, Shanghai, China

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“A reasonably priced Marriott Branded Hotel that is within 7-10 minutes walk of “The Bund”

Booking and Getting to the Hotel:

We ended up in here thanks to online search engines and a price / location combination. We ended up on an advance purchase non refundable rate of 966 RMB or approximately $152 USD per night. All in all, it was a pretty reasonable rate for a property just a short walk from the Bund itself and close to most major tourist attractions. At the time of our visit, we were saving for our wedding and preferred an economy stay over a more premium location directly on “The Bund”.

With the escalating prices of hotel limousine transfers, we elected to take a taxi from PuDong airport to the Yu Yan Garden area. Similar to other cities, we joined the taxi stand queue and it’s a matter of luck on who you get as driver. As luck would have it, the cab we ended up with was in rough shape; the meter kept falling out of the dashboard into the gear box area with every bump of the freeway. Our fare was 174 RMB ($27 USD) door to door with the surcharges and about 1 hour of travel. The Hotel Limosine Transfer was priced at 700 RMB ($111 USD).

The hotel location:

The hotel itself was a little off the main high rent district of “The Bund”. In exchange for being about a 7 – 10 minutes walk away in aNorth East direction to The Bund, we ended up with a slightly lower room price point. This wasn’t a necessarily bad thing. The hotel was very conveniently located to the Yu Yan Gardens, which is a major tourist attraction for Shanghai.

The hotel was in an older eighties era building but the public areas had been recently been refurbished. The hotel did offer a pool and health club- something I find essential for business travel and had a great location immediately across from the Shanghai Metro (Yu Yan Gardens station), which made it very convenient to get around town. 

The Room: A Deluxe Room, King, City View.

Spacious, western sized washroom.

Looking North East from the room through some somewhat soiled windows.

We settled in and were immediately reminded of how the Chinese Interior Ministry controls information that is received here. A broadcast on the CNN World News was reporting on how China expelled the lone Al-Jazerra reporter from the Chinese Bureau when sensors immediately cut the screen to black about 5-7 seconds into the story. We were in a different world already. 

Fitness and Recreation:

There was a rooftop pool that looked a little tired, but also an exercise area which I would have loved had I been here on business. Instead, we opted for a run on the Bund sea wall itself, which was a convenient 7 – 10 minutes walk away with much better overall views.

The hotel offered some solid night time views from the hotel room itself over towards New Shanghai across the river.

The hotel had some advantages, and some disadvantages. It had a very convenient location for exploring. The metro is across the street and it was within walking distance to the bund (7-10 minutes) through a park and a neat Chinese neighbourhood. A convenience store is located across the first major intersection to the north. Lastly, there is an on site gym with no additional fees.

The minor niggles are pretty inconsequential. The hotel appeared to be somewhat dated, the onsite restaurant did not seem to be too appealing – although admittedly we didn’t eat here. For those that are looking for it, there are no real western conveniences nearby; Starbucks 3 blocks away in the Yu Yan Gardens

Overall:

I would stay here again for leisure purposes, but likely try somewhere closer to the Bund if I was staying on business to be a little closer to all the action.

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