The Shanghai International Circuit is a Hermann Tilke-designed circuit that has hosted the Chinese Grand Prix since 2004, featuring the distinctive spiral grandstand and a challenging technical layout that rewards driver skill. The circuit returned to the F1 calendar in 2024 after a COVID-related hiatus. Hotels in Shanghai offer circuit access alongside the city's extraordinary blend of the historic Bund, futuristic Pudong skyline, and one of Asia's most exciting dining and nightlife scenes.
Our Picks — Shanghai
The Bund
The 1910 Shanghai Club building is one of the Bund's most storied addresses — the legendary Long Bar, once the longest bar in Asia, still anchors the ground floor. Rooms in the heritage wing retain original marble fireplaces and ornate plasterwork, while the tower addition offers Huangpu River panoramas that confirm why the Bund remains Shanghai's defining spectacle.
The Bund
Occupying the 1928 North China Daily News building at the northern tip of the Bund, The Peninsula Shanghai is the Bund hotel that generations of Shanghai romantics have dreamed about. Grand Art Deco rooms, a rooftop bar with the Pudong skyline as backdrop, and the finest afternoon tea in China make this the standard against which every other Bund hotel is measured.
Former French Concession
Thirty meticulously restored 1930s shikumen townhouses gathered around cobblestoned lanes in the Former French Concession. Each residence is an individual villa with private garden or terrace; Capella's service — butlers available around the clock, a private cinema, a tea house — wraps it all in unhurried elegance. The antithesis of the tower hotel.
Former French Concession
Piero Lissoni's design is all amber travertine, warm oak, and library walls of curated books — a hotel that feels genuinely residential on leafy Jinan Lu. The rooftop pool, the Grill restaurant, and the House Collective service philosophy create a stay that regulars return to more as a favourite home than a hotel.
Rising from the banks of the Huangpu, the Mandarin Oriental Pudong delivers unobstructed Bund panoramas that make it the obvious choice for guests who want to face the spectacle rather than be part of it. The Fifty-Eight bar on the 58th floor and the MO Bar are essential sundowner destinations for the city's most dramatic light show.
Jing'an
China's first carbon-neutral hotel occupies a converted factory complex in Jing'an — exposed brick, reclaimed timber, and salvaged industrial fittings create a warmth that purpose-built hotels rarely achieve. The courtyard garden, the excellent cocktail bar, and the genuinely warm service have made it a cult favourite with repeat visitors.
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