Looking out from my
Executive Deluxe room on
the 59th floor of the
golden-ribbed St. Regis
Shanghai Jingan, I realize
I’ve never had quite this
view of the city. I’ve been
to the observation decks of
towers like the Shanghai
World Financial Center,
legions higher, but they’re
over in skyscraper-central
Pudong—which I can see
to the northeast, melding
into a neon Crayola box
with their cousins in the
North Bund. From a tall
building on that side of
town, you feel like a tree in
a cacophonous forest;
from here, alone at the top of the lower-rise
Jing’an district, the CBD looks a peaceful world
away, though it’s just a 15-minute drive.
Yes, I just called crowded, sprawling
Shanghai “peaceful,” but even at ground level,
large swathes of Jing’an are just that. You won’t
exactly find seclusion at the must-see Jing’an
Temple, with the masses of devotees paying
their respects to China’s largest jade Buddha.
Just toss a coin for luck into the central shrine,
and head back out to stroll Nanjing Road West,
or duck into Jing’an Park, where grinning old
people doing traditional dances from their far-THE
ST. REGIS
SHANGHAI
JINGAN
and two flotation tanks. The main building has
a light-filled library where it’s a pleasure to sit
and sip tea and partake of the fresh pastries
and canapés available all day. Normally I want
to hustle out of the hotel lobby; here I want to
linger. But it would be a waste not to take
advantage of this prime location.
Carve out some time to just get lost in the
winding, tree-lined boulevards the French left
behind. You’ll be ecstatic to stumble upon
holes-in-the wall like the fresh-dumpling
doorway manned by a husband-and-wife team
at 102 Goa’an Road. At little local eatery Jesse,
the braised pork is a must-order. Some of the
city’s most popular bars and restaurants are
within a 20-minute walk, such as pioneering
microbrew-pub Boxing Cat and their beautiful-
people dining spin-off Liquid Laundry; Mr.
Willis—imagine if your favorite comfort-food
chef invited you to his enchantingly lit
apartment for dinner; and the bubbly fueled,
binge-worthy brunch hotspot Bull and Claw.
Capella’s on-site dining is fully of a piece
with this neighborhood vibe, and it’s
spectacular. Le Comptoir de Pierre Gagnaire,
whose windows overlook the courtyard and the
restored water tower that used to supply the
residents here, has the pleasantly unstuffy feel
that is perfect for a fancy champagne high tea
or a casual-chic bistro dinner. Executive chef
Romain Chapel turns out cocotte of meaty,
succulent frogs poulette and a Dover sole
meuniere sautéed with orange butter whose
incredible lightness is balanced by its
mushroom and txistorra sausage stuing.
After dislodging myself from the gin-
forward bar, I wander back to the hotel, under
the archway, past the water tower. I buzz
myself in through the lilong fence then, after a
saunter down the mew, into my shikumen gate.
Heading up my mini flights of stairs, it feels
nothing so much like entering a hotel as
returning to a how-did-they-pull-that-off
Airbnb. It feels like returning home.
capellahotels.com; villas from RMB4,500.
70 APRIL 2018 / TRAVELANDLEISUREASIA.COM
The mews of
Capella Shanghai.