The Puli Hotel and Spa

The Puli Hotel and Spa

The Puli Hotel and Spa occupies 26 floors in Shanghai's Jing'an district, close enough to Jing'an Temple, the Shanghai Art Museum and Huaihai Shopping Road that guests can walk to all three without hailing a car. Inside, the design language is stripped back rather than embellished: 229 rooms across a hotel built with restraint as a stated principle, not a marketing line, and a Leading Hotels of the World listing that reflects the polish everywhere from the lobby to the spa. What sets it apart from Shanghai's other luxury hotels is a Michelin-starred restaurant, PHÉNIX, run in-house rather than outsourced. The wellness floor holds a 25-metre indoor heated infinity pool lined in slate and teal mosaic, a sauna, a steam room and a gym positioned to look over the trees of Jing'an Park rather than a car park. Rooms run from a 506-square-foot Grand King Room to a 915-square-foot Deluxe King Suite, all with bathrobes, minibars and either a bathtub or a shower. A traveller who wants a hotel that argues loudly for itself will find the lobby too quiet; one who wants to disappear into a bath after a day of meetings at the nearby Park Place office tower, then eat well without leaving the building, will not want for much. Check-in starts at 2pm, check-out at noon, and a 1,000 CNY daily deposit is taken at arrival for incidentals. Airport transfers can be arranged but carry a surcharge, and spa treatments need booking ahead. Pets are not permitted. The result is a hotel that is calm on purpose, in a city that rarely is. In Jing'an, three landmarks are a walk away, and the hotel's own Michelin-starred restaurant means a serious meal without leaving the building. A 25-metre infinity pool and gym look over Jing'an Park's old trees. This is a lobby built for quiet, not noise.