It’s rare for me to review a Holiday Inn, but this one is among the newer ones in Shanghai, having been open for just over a year. Everything from the facilities and service to the planes flying overhead left a strong impression.
Let’s start with the facilities. The advantage of a new hotel is that its hardware is much better than that of older properties; the rooms are spacious, and while the decor isn’t luxurious, it is simple and functional, which is perfectly fine. The building isn’t very tall, only 8 stories, and located in Qibao. It’s a bit of a walk from the subway—roughly a little over 1 km from both Qibao Station on Line 9 and Hangzhong Road Station on Line 10. If you don’t mind which line you take, I’d recommend Line 9, as the route is quite bustling, whereas the area around Line 10 feels rather desolate.
The surrounding area is far more vibrant than I expected. With Tesco, CapitaMall Qibao, and Printemps nearby, walking from the subway station all the way to the other side of the hotel, there’s only a single residential complex sandwiched in between; everything else is commercial space. It gets very crowded on weekends, making the hotel feel like a peaceful oasis. The entrance looks pretty nice too~~~
My Priority Club card got me upgraded directly to an Executive Room with lounge access included. A welcome letter, fruit, and cookies were already set out in the room. The room is quite spacious at about 39 square meters and fully equipped. It features a King Koil mattress and Roca bathroom fixtures. Aside from the bathroom combining the tub and shower without a separate stall, everything else was excellent.
The Executive Lounge is practically right across from the room, making it super convenient to pop over. With double-height ceilings, the space feels very open and airy, and every now and then you can see planes flying by outside the window~~~~~
Afternoon tea didn’t offer much—just soft drinks, coffee, tea, and Oreos~~~ The lounge was completely empty, making it a perfect spot for business chats or the like. Happy Hour featured about 3 cold dishes, 4 hot dishes, 3 types of desserts, 3 kinds of fruit, plus a variety of beverages and alcohol. Everything tasted pretty good, and you could easily get a full meal~~~~
I’d never really thought about what it would feel like to have planes fly directly overhead before, so encountering it for the first time here was quite a shock… Gradually, I got used to it, and watching plane after plane pass above became quite amusing. However, it does get a bit noisy at night; the sound doesn’t completely die down until around midnight, and it starts up again around 8:30 the next morning~~~ Life must be tough for the locals living here.
The next day, I visited Qibao Ancient Town. My last visit was on a weekday, so I was totally unprepared for the massive crowds on a weekend… I had planned to grab some local snacks for lunch, but the old street was packed solid—you couldn’t even squeeze through. After walking for a while, I couldn’t take it anymore and headed over to the riverside nearby for a breather and a view… Later, I had a meal at Tangqiao Old Restaurant inside the town. Business was so booming that their signature mutton dish was sold out, so I had to settle for beef instead… As for that dish… the taste was mediocre and the price a bit steep, so I wouldn’t recommend it.
Photos in this post taken with a SONY NEX-5R + 16-50 f3.5-5.6, post-processed in Lightroom.
Support
