PRICE:
Frommer's Recommended

A famous curiosity around town, this hallucinatory Gothic/Tudor fantasia of brown-tiled steeples, gables, and spires was constructed by a Swedish shipping magnate, Eric Moller, in 1936. From 1949 until 2001, it was used as the headquarters of the Shanghai Communist Youth League. In 2001, the Hengshan Group restored the original mansion, added several hideous imitation buildings in the back, and reopened it all as a hotel. Inside the lobby of the original house, chandeliers and gilded furniture clash loudly with marble pillars, parquet floors, and a Chinese moon gate. Rooms here, with high ceilings, dark wood paneling, and thick drapes, are comfortable enough but overpriced (starting from ¥2,500/$357/£179 before discount); cheaper standard rooms in the back annex are dull. Despite a prime location at the northwestern edge of the French Concession, this hotel delivers poor value, trading heavily instead on its bizarre history and eclectic architecture.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Shanghai, 5th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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