brusselschap

Am i mad to want to spend a week in Shanghai in January?

My wife and I live in Brussels. Before starting another hard year's work i'd like to spend a week somewhere nice/fun/exciting. I'd wanted to look at warm/sunny locations but flights are all too expensive.

i've found excellent flights for Shanghai getting into Shanghai on 31 december and leaving on 6 January. And have found really good room rates at the Four Seasons.

Is Shanghai in January just too cold to wander around and do touristy things? We'd like to do a lot of R&R, restaurants, a little sightseeing and maybe one day trip. I've been to China before; my wife hasn't and it seems a waste to go so far and just stay in one place but the mood/time is not for travelling from place to place. We've had a though year and need to relax.

Is the Four Seasons a good place to do that? At just under €200 a night bed and breakfast seems a pretty good price!!

Whaddayathink??

thanks

kaneda

I was in Shanghai in January a few years back and had brilliant weather. Not that much to see there (don't miss the museum).

I am always amazed at what people consider a reasonable price on this site. Try somewhere a bit cheaper:

http://www.travellerspoint.com/budge...n-ci-1169.html

Neil_Oz

I'm with kaneda - not a little surprised that €200 (US$258) would be considered a "really good rate" in such a low-cost country as China - even if it is Shanghai.

Bear in mind, that figure is more than most of the hotel's staff would earn in a MONTH, which suggests to me a profit margin that's breathtaking in its audacity.

And this in January!!

We paid about US$75 (€58) for a mini-suite in a very decent 3* hotel about a €2 cab ride from the Bund, and that was in the October holiday week. In the off-season I would think that hotel would settle for $50 (€39).

OK, brusselschap, somewhere like that may be a little humble for your tastes, but you could use it as a guide.

As for things to do - I suggest using the search box on this page to turn up some helpful past threads. We spent 5 days in Shanghai and didn't run out of things to do, including minor but fascinating attractions like the former houses of Zhou Enlai and Dr Sun Yatsen and the house, now a museum, where the first meeting of the CCP was held. Shanghai has plenty of history but it's modern, not ancient. We also walked until we were footsore and never got sick of the city's sights and sounds (and food). I hope the weather in January will allow you to do that.

thursdaysd

I agree that $200/night seems remarkably high. For a day trip I would recommend visiting Suzhou - the gardens should still be magical regardless of season. There you can also visit the Silk Factory (very touristy) and the Embroidery Factory (a bit less touristy).

KimJapan

Though it might be cold, I think you could enjoy Shanghai a lot. A stay at the Four Seasons might be what makes the trip special. As you say you want lots of R & R, a nice hotel is really important, as you will likely spend a good bit of time there enjoying the facilities. Of course cheaper options are avaialble, but will they really offer the same aesthetics, service and facilities...I doubt it.

Everyone has different ideas in what they want from their hotel, and this even changes trip to trip, or within a single trip even. For a trip heavy on sightseeing excursions where little time outside of sleeping is spent in the hotel, I would agree that a lesser quality and lower priced hotel would be fine. But for the type of trip brusselschap describes I think a lesser hotel would be a disappointment...and therefore not worth the money saved.

Neil_Oz

I wasn't trying to talk brusselschap into a downmarket hotel. Personally I don't see the value in a 5* hotel, as I don't see the point in paying for a glitzy lobby, an army of flunkeys and a facilities that I don't use. But each to his own. My point was that $260 a night is a grossly inflated price to pay for a 5* hotel in China, especially in the dead of winter. P. T. Barnum (or was it Sam Goldwyn?) had a phrase for that.

brusselschap

Thanks NeilOz, Thursday and Kaneda. I take your point and normally would fully agree. A few years back i travelled through China with friends we stayed in Beijing Shanghai and two other places i forget and we stayed at much much cheaper hotels. I also agree that if your using the hotel just to sleep then there's no point in throwing money into what is - as you point out - just a glitsy lobby..

HOWEVER... i think KimJapan takes my point. We've had a rough ROUGH year (i won't go into details here) and what i'm looking for is R&R and peace and quiet. I need a place where if we choose to spend half the day at the hotel to use the pool or the gym or just laze about then its pleasant enough to do so. The price is high but a Four Seasons in Europe or the US would be at least twice if not more so the price. Indeed we could decide to just stay in Europe and do the same for five or six days but then it would be a lot more expensive and also i was looking to throw in a little fun and excitement..

Anyway... still not 100% sure that the dates work or that we can afford to be so far away from home at that time of year but if the prices are still available i think i'll go for it. My question was, in fact, more about the weather.

Finally..... HELLO KIMJAPAN!! remember me? We sat across from eachother around a pool in ChiangMai (a hotel which, incidentally we paid $60 i i remember correctly) end december last year. I was looking out for a japanese man called Kim and only later realised it was you when i read about your daughter and the elephants! Nice to read you again! Hope all is well! What i really wanted was a week of BKK and sun but flights are way too expensive and also my memories from Shanghai (in 2001) are just excellent!

Thanks again for your messagess!

lxchiang

brusselschap: About the weather in SHA in Jan. My wife and I were in SHA from the middle of Dec. 2003 till Dec 31st. It was dry the whole time. Some days, daytime highs were in the high sixties; one or two nights the lows were in the thirties. We had quite a bit of sunshine. Dec and Jan are usually the dry months. See <weatherbase.com>. The prevailing northwest wind can be cold, but not if you are dressed for it. Dec/Jan is the low season in SHA. You'll find fewer tourists and that's why you are only paying about US$250 for bed and breakfast at the Four Seasons. Heating by electricity is still very expensive in SHA. You will find some local shops very cold.

You will only have 5 full vacation days in SHA and I believe the concierge desk at the hotel will give you good advice based on your inputs.

kaneda

KimJapan paid a paltry $60 for a room? I don't believe it. Wasn't there any rooms over $200 available? Or does KJ just tell other people to overpay while staying in cheap accommodation herself?

twofortheroad

Profligate and wastrel that I am, I stayed at the Four Seasons Shanghai last May, and I highly recommend it. It is a lovely hotel--rooms, breakfast, lobby, concierge are excellent. This hotel would indeed be a wonderful R & R retreat.

One caveat--The superior & deluxe rooms are 39 sq m, a tad snug. The premier is 61 sq. m. This is very large for a 3rd category choice, usually you have to go up to 5th choice. If there is low occupancy, they may even upgrade you. So for a super luxurious room, you may want to splurge. It will still be much lower in price than a resort or europe.

thursdaysd

Sorry about the rough year, but I have a hard time using "peace and quiet" and Shanghai in the same sentence. Actually, I didn't find any of the big Chinese cities quiet and peaceful. Still, it will be different from Brussels. Maybe Hangzhou will be quiet then - it was packed when I was there on Oct. 1st - and could be a day trip. Friends of mine who currently live in Shanghai did an overnight trip to Xitang, a canal town, that also sounds close enough to be a day trip.

Neil_Oz

brusselschap, I'm getting the drift, and there's no doubt that a day in the hurly-burly of a large Chinese city does leave you in need of some R&R.

We visited Hangzhou, Suzhou and a "water town" called Zhouzhuang - on balance we liked Suzhou best, but we may have missed some of Hangzhou's charms. Zhouzhuang, very touristy but pretty. I'm told there are better water towns but can't recall the names. One piece of advice I would give is not to stay overnight in Zhouzhang for fear of ending up in the Zhouzhuang Hotel (which looked like the only game in town anyway). Hopeless place.

KimJapan

brusselschap...of course I remember you, and I remember the story of the year you had before your honeymoon. I hope this trip works out for you and you and your wife can have a luxury treat.

brusselschap

Hi KimJapan, impressed that you remember about my "year" before the honeymoon... Well what can I say 2006 wasn't QUITE as scary but possibly more impacting in terms of longterm health and state of mind.... well what do you know... we're just lucky... things just keep hitting us.... guess it all makes you a better person in the end!

Everyone else, thanks for all the messages...(Kaneda, the hotel is Chiang Mai was indeed a high end hotel but as it had just opened it had extremely low rates available through asiarooms.com - anyway enough of that...)

Am just back from a bookshop where i looked through timeout shanghai, wallpaper shanghai, lonelyplanet shanghai etc. and now can't make my mind up between the four seasons, the westin, the ritzcarlton, the hyatt or the st regis though the latter seems to be so so far away and impractical that i think i'll give it a miss... at least, as it is low seasons all have availability so i think i'll just book a room at two of them and then mull things over for a few days and then cancel one booking.

Thanks to all for the input!

n

Elainee

Kim and I agree on hotels. Sometimes an inexpensive hotel, sometimes an expensive one. Shanghai 4S certainly cheaper than 4S Hong Kong or Europe. Sometimes hotel is important part of trip, sometimes it is just a place to sleep. To each his own and each trip is different. It is good that there are recommendations on this board for all kinds of hotels so everybody has assistance in making choices.

kaneda

brusselschap. As you pointed out, cheap hotels do not have to be poor hotels. Sites I and others give list hotels and you can usually check out pictures and rooms as well as other information before booking.


I'm with Neil Oz. Unless you intend spending all your time locked in your hotel, who needs glitz?