Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund

No. 2 The Bund stands at the southern end of the Shanghai waterfront, a stone building of six storeys with a pair of baroque cupolas on the roof. From 1910 to 1941 it was the Shanghai Club, the gentlemen's club of the British community, and its ground floor held the Long Bar, a 34-metre counter of mahogany where members stood in strict order of seniority, the taipans at the window end with the river view. The Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund took over the building in 2011 and rebuilt the bar to the original drawings.

History

The Shanghai Club was founded in 1861 and moved into this purpose-built home in January 1910. The building was the work of the Shanghai architects Tarrant and Moorhead; its interiors included an Edwardian grand staircase, a library and the Long Bar, which newspapers of the period called the longest bar in the world. The Japanese occupation closed the club in 1941. After 1949 the building became the International Seamen's Club, and from 1971 the Dongfeng Hotel, a cheap state hotel whose ground floor housed, in the 1990s, Shanghai's first Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Hilton signed the building for its Waldorf Astoria brand in the 2000s. The restoration took several years; the new tower on Zhongshan Road behind the heritage building opened first, in late 2010, and the heritage wing followed in 2011. The Long Bar had been removed decades earlier, so the hotel rebuilt it from archive photographs and plans.

Architecture and design

The property is two buildings joined. The heritage building on the Bund, in a neoclassical style with baroque details, holds the Long Bar, the grand staircase, Salon de Ville, the Peacock Alley lounge and 20 suites with high ceilings and the original tall windows on the river. Behind it, the Waldorf Astoria Tower is a new building with 240 rooms, the main restaurants, the ballroom, the spa and the indoor pool. The two are connected at ground level, so that a guest can walk from a modern tower room to a 1910 bar without going outside.

Rooms and suites

There are 260 rooms and suites in all. The 20 suites in the heritage building are the ones to ask for: the Bund-facing suites look straight over the Huangpu River to the Pudong skyline, and the ceilings are among the highest in any Shanghai hotel. The tower rooms are larger than the city average and finished in dark wood and marble, with a sitting area and a bathroom with separate tub and shower; the upper floors look over the river to Lujiazui or back over the old city.

Dining

The Long Bar is the reason many visitors come, and it serves oysters and cocktails under a pressed ceiling as the original did. Pelham's, named for the Shanghai Club's long-serving secretary, is the formal Western restaurant in the heritage building. Wei Jing Ge serves Cantonese and Shanghainese cuisine in the tower. Peacock Alley, the name borrowed from the New York Waldorf, is the lounge for afternoon tea, and Salon de Ville is used for private dinners and tea in the heritage wing.

Wellness

The Waldorf Astoria Spa, in the tower, has treatment rooms, a sauna and steam rooms, a fitness centre and an indoor heated pool with a glass roof. It is not a destination spa, but it is one of the better hotel spas on the Bund.

Weddings and events

The hotel hosts weddings, galas and conferences. The Grand Ballroom in the tower is the principal venue, with pre-function space and the capacity for a seated banquet of several hundred; a set of smaller meeting rooms sits alongside it. The heritage building offers Salon de Ville and the private rooms of Pelham's for dinners of a few dozen, and the Long Bar can be taken over for receptions. Wedding photographs on the grand staircase under the stained-glass skylight are part of the appeal for Shanghai couples.

Location

The hotel is at No. 2 The Bund, Zhongshan East 1st Road, at the corner of Jinling Road, the southern anchor of the Bund's run of 1920s banks and trading houses. Nanjing Road is 15 minutes on foot to the north, the Yu Garden and the old Chinese city are ten minutes south-west, and the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel and ferries to Pudong are nearby. Among luxury hotels in Shanghai, few can match the address or the view. Pudong International Airport is about 45 kilometres east; Hongqiao, for domestic flights and high-speed trains, is about 20 kilometres west. Nanjing East Road metro station is the nearest.