Rennaisance Pudong: Good business accomodations
This was a very sweet place to stay. Then again, it was free for me. My wife was on a business trip and I just tagged along. They tacked on 0 extra charges even after fully disclosing my being added to the room. They simply changed the room from a single king to a double queen.
At this time, it seems everyone staying at the Renaissance is given a club pass. This means that breakfast, afternoon appetizers and a hosted bar are included.
I really enjoyed their breakfast; it became my big meal of the day and fed me plenty to keep going. An entire restaurant designed around buffet serving was turned over to breakfast. Western breakfasts, Chinese breakfasts and Japanese breakfasts. Take your pick or mix and match. Fruits, fruit juices, eggs, ham, bacon, cheeses, cereals, yogurts, pastries... On and on. They even had lattes on request. Loved the breakfasts.
The afternoon hosted bar with appetizers until 7:30 PM followed by desserts was welcomed. Not knowing when my wife would show up at the end of the day, this became a convenient place to hang out and meet up. And, if her day went long so that dinner was out, the appetizers held the line until the next day's breakfast.
The hotel is located in the area at the end of Century Blvd away from the river in Pudong. This means you're staying about 3 or 4 miles from the Pudong/Bund waterfronts and about a mile from Century Blvd. Century Blvd is the major artery defining the Pudong street layout. At the river end of Century Blvd is the Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai World Financial Tower, and the Jinmao Tower. That is, the Pudong waterfront iconic buildings. At the other end of Century Blvd is the Shanghai Museum of Science and Technology, Pudong government complex and the huge Century Park.
The hotel is about 1 mile east of the museum. If you're coming from the museum direction (heading east), you'll pass the Crowne Plaza, come to the Renaissance and, a few blocks further east, the Ramada. The Ramada location is surrounded by some shopping plazas. Thumb Plaza has a grocery store that's gigantic. I have no idea what 3/4ths of the stuff in that grocery store might be but it was worth the time to check it out. There are plenty restaurants in the two plazas: Chinese, Italian, Indian, you name it. There are also competing Coldstone and Hagen Daz ice cream shops. It's a very western-like shopping center.
A block from the hotel is Century Park. This is a gigantic park that costs 10 RMB to enter. For peace and quiet (most Chinese seem to have enough sense to not pay to enter a city park (unlike me)), it's hard to beat in a city where the noise level is continuous and intense. There's one decent sized lake, a number of ponds, some oriental gardens, western gardens and tributes to heroes of Chinese history. There's even a restaurant on the lake. Century Park is a great place to jog.
Beautiful lobby, attentive staff, indoor pool, gym, saunas (his and hers), steam rooms (his and hers) and on call massages. That last, I wouldn't recommend because of the relatively high price. Within a very short walk, there are a dozen massage businesses that are indeed places to get massages. The cost difference is $80 for a 1 hour hotel massage vs $30 outside the hotel.
