Huating Hotel
1200 Caoxi Bei Lu, Shanghai
Largish 5-star hotel. Very nice, lots of hookers. Very good Chinese and Japanese cuisine, comfy rooms, but it is in the middle of nowhere. Pimps abound, beware pickpockets. Bring mace, or large Caucasian friends to ward off criminals and other undesirables.

Jinjiang Hotel
59 Maoming Nan Lu, Shanghai
Smack in the middle of the French Concession, originally an imperialist fixture now populated by corrupt communist cadres. It has a disco, and several pseudo-Western restaurants. Not bad, but not recommended.

Portman Ritz-Carlton
1376 Nanjing Xi Lu, Shanghai
Very nice new 5-star hotel, in the city center. You can get Tomy Roma ribs here. The Hard Rock Cafe is downstairs, if you want some bad food and bad atmosphere. Run by Japanese, so the people bow at you annoyingly often. Pimps everywhere, scoping out the foreign tourists. Otherwise, definitely recommended, if your wallet is deep enough.

Shanghai JC Mandarin
1225 Nanjing Xi Lu, Shanghai
Right next to the Portman, but much more affordable. Very good dim sum on the weekends, 25% discount on Saturday, if you ask for it. Less glitzy than the Portman, but I am sick of the bowing anyways.

Westin Taipingyang
5 Zunyi Nan Lu, Shanghai
5-start hotel close to where I live. All the usual stuff at exorbitant prices. More hookers than you can shake a stick at. Located near the wonderful Friendship Store where all the black market antique sellers hang out. Very nice hotel, if you have a corporate credit card. It is in the middle of nowhere, taxis will rip you off. Take the shuttle instead.

If you live there, or heck, if any of you noders ever come to Shanghai (which I highly doubt, but one must remain hopeful), drop by my place. I am often seen carousing around the Westin hotel area, throwing firecrackers at innocent bystanders and taxis.

Jesus, node block sucks.

The Hotel Sofitel Hyland, Nanjing Rd. East- "pedestrian section" Very convenient if you want to visit the People's Park or Shanghai Museum in the center of the city or go shopping on the pedestrian street.

The Pudong Shangri-La: In Pudong, which is the "new" part of the city on the East side of the Huangpu river. Shangri-La is well known in Hong Kong and Taiwan, it is a good hotel which is less expensive than the Portman.

The Peace Hotel, Nanjing Road- situated right next to The Bund, this hotel has a lot of 1930's era decoration to recommend it.

The Grand Hyatt hotel in the Jinmao Building It's on around the 50th floor of the tallest building in China, so it has a great view of the city on a clear night.