A corner view executive suite at Jing’an Shangri-La. Photo Credit: Shangri-La.com.

Part of a weekly series featuring luxury hotel expert Mary Gostelow’s hotel pick of the week.

The burgeoning area of Jing An in Shanghai is named for a squat golden temple that dates back to the year 247 AD – you can barely see it from the top of all the high-rises surrounding the area. At 508-room Jing An Shangri-La, West Shanghai, two years old this month, you can spy it from one of the upper rooms: try corner suite 5303 (where they had kindly installed an elliptical in my parlor), or anything else that gives access to the elegant 55th floor Horizon Club lounge. All rooms, designed by HBA, are very soothing, with subtle but not overdone hints of locale.

Bathrooms have both heated floors and hot electric towel rails, great for drying swimwear after lengths in the 80-foot indoor pool, or after a particularly strenuous workout in the 24/7 LifeFitness gym. Photo Credit: Shangri-La.com.

You have great shops and restaurants around, and one unique feature, the House of Mao. This, just behind the hotel, is the restored and expanded two-floor wooden house where the founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung, 1893-1976) lived for a few months in 1920. The House of Mao, as it is called, is divided vertically into three and in the central part climb the precarious stairs to see his tiny bed.

Souvenirs all feature Chairman Mao in one form or another.

One other third section is the Mao Gallery, run by the appropriately-named Julia Mao. Right now she has a Xiao Gu calming exhibition, featuring works by Zie Yongdei, who seems to like doing landscapes in soft pastels and then covering in rice paper. Do not forget the final third section which has Mao souvenirs for purchase. See the little perspex figures? A light travels quickly from one to the next so you feel as if ‘he’ is moving. And then it was time to check some of the big bronzes in Shimen Road outside. Julia Mao looks over those two. You quickly realise in China, by the way, that women are powerful. Even at top level it is they who decide and book travel, and probably pay for it too. Jing’an Shangri-La GM is Kieran Twomey.

Mary with gallery owner Julia Mao and her on-site director Kelvin Chen.

Check out last week’s Hotel of the Week.