Shanghai's hot and humid summers are no joke, but thankfully there are plenty of ways to cope. Last week's record setting temperatures were much harder on my Northern European friends, where there is usually no need for air conditioning, than it was for us in China. Even last Sunday, when we escaped to Shanghai Wonderland Intercontinental to get out of the thickness of the city air for a day, we were able to enjoy most of the natural environment and wonderland offerings from behind large windows in a comfortably air conditioned room. Kind of ironic, but seeing the people walking the glass bridge in the old quarry or taking the zip line looked entirely unappealing when the heat index was above 110ºF. However, the natural scenery felt perfectly beautiful and serene in the shade of a ceiling with an air conditioning vent blowing our way.
Some malls in Shanghai actually have a really great set of options for spending a day at the mall. Crafting classes on demand, cooking classes on demand, music or language lesson classes on demand, tea education classes on demand... are all things you can find in Shanghai malls, alongside global brands like Adidas, H&M, Zara, Nike, etc. I think this is something the United States could really learn from when it comes to malls- creating more experiences for sale, not just things for sale. Parents can either join in the activity for their kid, create something of their own, or leave their kid with a teacher or class and grab a coffee and relax or go do shopping without kids. It's brilliant, really, and I bet it even boosts sales in the rest of the mall.
Then there are also restaurants that are experiences onto themselves, like the Spacelab Restaurant. I'd call this a modernized version of the restaurants with trains running around the edges, or as I recently experienced in Kansas City (despite it being there forever) a modern version of Fritz's Sandwiches. At Spacelab, food and drinks are ordered on an iPad, and then delivered via a rollercoaster car that rolls down a series of rails throughout the restaurant.
Of course, novelty comes in many varieties, and cafes that need to stand out and compete against more popular brands often need some kind of niche to break through the density or popularity of other options. Enter, cafes with strong themes, like this Polar Cafe full of seat cushions representing polar bears and even marshmallows made to look like polar bears.
When I'm having tough luck finding cafes to relax in, because everyone else has the same idea about how they want to get out of the house nearby, but also stay inside air conditioning, I start to look around at what the hotels have to offer, especially when it comes to lounges where I can settle in with a bottle of sparking water or a pot of tea. I gravitate toward historic hotels and boutique hotels. Everything in between is kind of uninspiring from a lobby experience perspective, though some luxury hotels have great service and amenities in their lobbies, sometimes they aren't as comfortable to relax in when there's almost too much service interrupting a writing or working flow.
This week I discovered great lounges inside the The Puli and The Shangri-La West Shanghai. Even though both of these may fall into the luxury end of the spectrum, the lobby lounge service was relaxed enough for reading or working without too much disturbance until looking up and asking someone for service. As the summer heat persists, I'll likely try even more hotel lounges and hotel breakfast offerings as a way to sample the experience inside the hotel. As much as I enjoy our apartment, sometimes it's just better to get out. It can also be better to focus in a hotel lobby, where the connection to the internet is either difficult, or too much of a hassle to bother with, which can help eliminate another set of internet distractions.
One unique hotel breakfast experience we ended up finding by accident was at the Bulgari Hotel. We just wanted to relax and have a little something to drink before last week's gallery day, but there really weren't many cafes around, and based on the map, the Bulgari Hotel was basically the closest option that would likely have some coffee and food service. So we headed up to the restaurant and ended up discovering a fantastic view of the Bund and having a fabulous breakfast for two on top of it all. I might make a reservation in the future for the evening sunset views in cooler weather, because for that morning breakfast hour and view, it was heavenly.
Some malls in Shanghai actually have a really great set of options for spending a day at the mall. Crafting classes on demand, cooking classes on demand, music or language lesson classes on demand, tea education classes on demand... are all things you can find in Shanghai malls, alongside global brands like Adidas, H&M, Zara, Nike, etc. I think this is something the United States could really learn from when it comes to malls- creating more experiences for sale, not just things for sale. Parents can either join in the activity for their kid, create something of their own, or leave their kid with a teacher or class and grab a coffee and relax or go do shopping without kids. It's brilliant, really, and I bet it even boosts sales in the rest of the mall.
Then there are also restaurants that are experiences onto themselves, like the Spacelab Restaurant. I'd call this a modernized version of the restaurants with trains running around the edges, or as I recently experienced in Kansas City (despite it being there forever) a modern version of Fritz's Sandwiches. At Spacelab, food and drinks are ordered on an iPad, and then delivered via a rollercoaster car that rolls down a series of rails throughout the restaurant.
Of course, novelty comes in many varieties, and cafes that need to stand out and compete against more popular brands often need some kind of niche to break through the density or popularity of other options. Enter, cafes with strong themes, like this Polar Cafe full of seat cushions representing polar bears and even marshmallows made to look like polar bears.
When I'm having tough luck finding cafes to relax in, because everyone else has the same idea about how they want to get out of the house nearby, but also stay inside air conditioning, I start to look around at what the hotels have to offer, especially when it comes to lounges where I can settle in with a bottle of sparking water or a pot of tea. I gravitate toward historic hotels and boutique hotels. Everything in between is kind of uninspiring from a lobby experience perspective, though some luxury hotels have great service and amenities in their lobbies, sometimes they aren't as comfortable to relax in when there's almost too much service interrupting a writing or working flow.
This week I discovered great lounges inside the The Puli and The Shangri-La West Shanghai. Even though both of these may fall into the luxury end of the spectrum, the lobby lounge service was relaxed enough for reading or working without too much disturbance until looking up and asking someone for service. As the summer heat persists, I'll likely try even more hotel lounges and hotel breakfast offerings as a way to sample the experience inside the hotel. As much as I enjoy our apartment, sometimes it's just better to get out. It can also be better to focus in a hotel lobby, where the connection to the internet is either difficult, or too much of a hassle to bother with, which can help eliminate another set of internet distractions.
One unique hotel breakfast experience we ended up finding by accident was at the Bulgari Hotel. We just wanted to relax and have a little something to drink before last week's gallery day, but there really weren't many cafes around, and based on the map, the Bulgari Hotel was basically the closest option that would likely have some coffee and food service. So we headed up to the restaurant and ended up discovering a fantastic view of the Bund and having a fabulous breakfast for two on top of it all. I might make a reservation in the future for the evening sunset views in cooler weather, because for that morning breakfast hour and view, it was heavenly.