Shanghai

Shanghai has spent more than a century reinventing itself through architecture. Along the Bund, monumental early 20th-century banks and trading houses face the futuristic skyline of Pudong across the Huangpu River, while the former French Concession offers an entirely different city of plane trees, garden villas and intimate streets. Shanghai also has one of Asia’s great collections of Art Deco architecture, from cinemas and apartment buildings to extraordinary private residences. Former factories, warehouses and historic shikumen houses now provide another layer, transformed into galleries, restaurants and contemporary cultural spaces.

Food and drink reflect Shanghai’s history as China’s great international port. Traditional Shanghainese cooking is subtle and distinctive, from xiaolongbao and shengjian dumplings to braised dishes and freshwater seafood, while regional cuisines from across China make the city an exceptional place to explore the country’s culinary diversity. Historic restaurants and tiny noodle shops coexist with ambitious contemporary kitchens, specialty coffee and one of Asia’s most sophisticated cocktail scenes. Shanghai’s glamorous bar culture feels particularly appropriate in a city that has been perfecting the art of going out since the Jazz Age.

Shanghai’s most interesting hotels have an extraordinary architectural inheritance to work with. Art Deco landmarks, restored villas, converted warehouses and contemporary design hotels offer alternatives to the enormous luxury towers, often combining Chinese craftsmanship and art with interiors that acknowledge the city’s cosmopolitan past. At DNA Hotels, we curate the places where architecture, food, history and Shanghai’s restless energy come together—hotels that capture a city forever caught between nostalgia for its glamorous past and fascination with whatever comes next.