Zhao An Hotel Shanghai

We stayed here on the day after landing and the day before we came home.

The rooms are a decent size and the bathrooms are clean enough. The beds were fairl hard, but is a similar theme in all the hotels we stayed in. I didn't mind this but some of our group found it hard to sleep in their beds.

There is a kettle and mugs, but no spoons so fishing tea bags out of the cup is fun. International breakfasts in the restaurant on the 7th floor were ok.

The room we had on our second visit (before coming home) did smell rather bad and had a musty air despite opening windows and blasting the air conditioning on. I hope the management took note of our message about this.

If you get a room overlooking the corner you can watch the slow-moving traffic and pedestrians with a casual attitude to crossing several lanes of traffic, which we found amusing.

If you want to explore the city this hotel is literally right next to a metro station so you don't have to stumble too far on your way out or way back.

I stayed here a couple nights in January 2009, booked it online earlier for a very cheap price. The hotel itself is quite average and has nothing fancy but works. Room was clean, lobby was full of cigarette smoke and bed was hard like in a typical Chinese hotel. I also heard that the breakfast could be improved a little bit. Location is not bad though, because there is a subway station below the hotel, which makes moving around the city extremely easy. If you are looking for a cheap place to stay in Shanghai and don't expect too much, this is just fine for a night or two.