Hotels we recommend
Where to stay in China
Eleven hotels in China we would book for a client, in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Suzhou and beyond. One holds MICHELIN Keys. Nine of them book through a partner programme, which adds an upgrade where one is free, daily breakfast for two, a hotel credit and late checkout, at the hotel's own rate.
- Hotels
- 11
- Cities
- 6
- With MICHELIN Keys
- 1
- With partner perks
- 9
- Newest
- 2025
By city
The hotels
Shanghai · Minhang
Amanyangyun
2018 · 35 rooms
An Aman in a replanted camphor forest on the south-western edge of Shanghai, built around Ming and Qing dynasty houses moved 700 km from Fuzhou in Jiangxi province and reassembled stone by stone. A walled village of 24 courtyard suites and pavilions and 11 four-bedroom Antique Villas, laid out by Kerry Hill Architects around an 80-tonne King Camphor Tree.
Shanghai · The Bund
The St. Regis on the Bund, Shanghai
2024 · 192 rooms
A 192-key St. Regis at 538 Zhongshan East No. 2 Road, at the Bund Finance Center end of the Bund in Huangpu, looking across the Huangpu River to Pudong. The copper-toned building is by Foster + Partners and Heatherwick Studio; inside is 1920s Shanghai Art Deco with Su embroidery and magnolia motifs, and butler service for every room.
Marriott STARS
Shanghai · Xuhui
Shanghai Jianyeli Capella Hotel
2017 · 55 rooms
A hotel of 55 villas in the restored Jian Ye Li shikumen lanes at 480 West Jianguo Road in Xuhui, one of the district's last remaining clusters of shikumen houses. The three-storey brick and stone townhouses with horse-head gables date from the 1930s; each villa has a private courtyard and interiors by Jaya International Design mixing Chinoiserie with French furniture.
2 MICHELIN Keys
Shanghai · Pudong
Mandarin Oriental Pudong, Shanghai
2013 · 362 rooms
Opened in 2013 at 111 Pudong Road South on the east bank of the Huangpu, within the Harbour City development at the edge of Lujiazui, with 210 serviced executive apartments alongside. It has direct access to the riverside promenade, looks across the river to the Bund and hangs about 4,000 works of contemporary Chinese art.
Mandarin Oriental Fan Club
Beijing · Chaoyang
The Ritz-Carlton, Beijing
2007 · 305 rooms
A 305-room hotel at China Central Place in Chaoyang, inside Beijing's central business district on Jianguo Road, next to the SKP shopping centre. The interiors by HBA follow a classic Ritz-Carlton style with an English manor-house lobby lounge, and the building also houses the Italian restaurant ATTA and the two-MICHELIN-star restaurant Jingji.
Marriott STARS
Beijing · Jianguomenwai
The St. Regis Beijing
1997 · 258 rooms · Renovated 2008
A 258-room hotel on Jianguomenwai Dajie in Beijing's diplomatic quarter, opened in October 1997, with St. Regis butler service and a 6,000 sq m landscaped garden. Its Iridium Spa draws a natural hot spring from 1,500 metres below ground, and suites make up 102 of the keys.
Marriott STARS
Shenzhen · Bao'an
The St. Regis Shenzhen Bao'an
2025 · 289 rooms
The St. Regis Shenzhen Bao'an has 289 rooms on the upper floors of the 51-storey OCT Ruiwan Tower in the centre of Shenzhen's Bao'an District, along Qianhai Bay, with a double-height sky lobby on the 35th floor. Aedas turned the tower 45 degrees so that its two main façades face the bay.
Marriott STARS
Shenzhen · Futian
Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen
2022 · 178 rooms
Mandarin Oriental, Shenzhen takes the upper floors of Block A, UpperHills, at 5001 Huanggang Road in Futian. It holds Two MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star ratings for both hotel and spa, and two MICHELIN-starred restaurants.
Mandarin Oriental Fan Club
Hangzhou · West Lake
Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou At West Lake
2010 · 81 rooms
A two-storey resort of pagoda-style pavilions on nine acres of bamboo, lily ponds and lagoon at 5 Lingyin Road, on the shore of West Lake. Built in traditional Jiangnan style on the site of the old Jin Sha Gang cultural village, it has 72 rooms, six suites and three villas.
Four Seasons Preferred Partner
Suzhou · Gusu
The Ritz-Carlton, Suzhou
2025 · 190 rooms
A 190-key Ritz-Carlton in the China Central Place development on Guangji South Road in Suzhou's old-city Gusu district, opened in March 2025. A high-rise by KPF whose facade reworks layered blue-tile roofs and folding-fan screens, with black-on-white interiors and a classical-style garden inside.
Marriott STARS
Zhuhai · Wanzai
The St. Regis Zhuhai
2018 · 251 rooms
The St. Regis Zhuhai occupies floors 41 to 72 of the Zhuhai Tower, overlooking the Wanzai shoreline on the west bank of the Pearl River Delta, a short ferry ride from Macau. Its 251 rooms, including 34 suites, were designed by Wilson Associates, all look over the waterways and bridges of Macau and Zhuhai, and come with butler service.
Marriott STARS
On our list
Hotels in China we rate but have not yet stayed in, drawn hollow on the map. The hotels above are first-hand; these are where we are going next. We book them as we book the rest.
Caochang Hutong, Qianmen
Three MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for forty-two hutong courtyard houses on the Central Axis.
Forty-two hutong courtyard houses on Caochang inside the Central Axis, four fifths of them original fabric. Opened 2024, and the only Mandarin Oriental you enter through a lane.
Zhongcha Valley, Zhangzha Town
Rissai Valley, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve
Three MICHELIN Keys; on our list for timber-and-stone villas in Zhongcha Valley beside Jiuzhaigou.
Eighty-seven villas in Zhongcha Valley beside Jiuzhaigou, the first Reserve in China, built in local timber and stone inside a nature reserve of a hundred and eighty thousand acres.
Liangma River
Two MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for Enzo Enea's gardens on the Liangma River.
Citterio and Viel's hotel in the Genesis Beijing complex, with Enzo Enea's gardens along the Liangma River and a Tadao Ando gallery.
Suhe Creek
Two MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for the restored 1916 Chamber of Commerce on Suzhou Creek.
The top floors of a tower on Suzhou Creek, with its Chinese restaurant in the restored 1916 Chamber of Commerce next door.
Photo: Livelikerw / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)The Bund
Two MICHELIN Keys and Forbes Five-Star; on our list for views over the old British Consulate gardens.
Opened in 2009 at the north end of the Bund, the first new hotel there in decades, looking over the old British Consulate gardens.
Chaoyang
Two MICHELIN Keys; on our list for Koolhaas's CCTV tower from the top suite.
The lower floors of the Jing Guang Centre in Chaoyang, opened 2014, with Koolhaas's CCTV tower in view from the top suite.
Mentougou
Two MICHELIN Keys and Relais & Châteaux; on our list for seventeen courtyards of a former village near Tanzhe Temple.
Thirty-eight rooms around seventeen courtyards of a former village in the Mentougou hills, a kilometre from Tanzhe Temple.
Lujiazui, Pudong
Two MICHELIN Keys; on our list for the top floors of the 632-metre Shanghai Tower.
The top floors of the 632-metre Shanghai Tower, opened 2021, with its restaurant on the 120th floor.
Wangfujing
Mandarin Oriental Wangfujing, Beijing
Forbes Five-Star; on our list for rooms over the roofs of the Forbidden City.
Seventy-three rooms that HBA styled on a Qing courtyard mansion, many looking out over the roofs of the Forbidden City.
Photo: The Peninsula Beijing / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)Wangfujing
Forbes Five-Star; on our list for the all-suite hotel on Goldfish Lane.
On Goldfish Lane off Wangfujing, rebuilt in 2017 as an all-suite hotel, goldfish worked into the rooms after the Qing mansion opposite.
What to know
Amanyangyun; The St. Regis on the Bund, Shanghai; Shanghai Jianyeli Capella Hotel; Mandarin Oriental Pudong, Shanghai; The Ritz-Carlton, Beijing; The St. Regis Beijing; The St. Regis Shenzhen Bao'an; Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen; Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou At West Lake; The Ritz-Carlton, Suzhou and The St. Regis Zhuhai. Each has its own page with the rooms, the restaurants and what booking through us adds.
Shanghai Jianyeli Capella Hotel (two MICHELIN Keys).
Of the hotels we recommend, The St. Regis Shenzhen Bao'an, which opened in 2025. The Ritz-Carlton, Suzhou followed in 2025.
Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou At West Lake: its rooms start at 63 square metres. The St. Regis Zhuhai from 60; Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen from 56 and Mandarin Oriental Pudong, Shanghai from 50.
The St. Regis on the Bund, Shanghai (Marriott STARS); Mandarin Oriental Pudong, Shanghai (Mandarin Oriental Fan Club); The Ritz-Carlton, Beijing (Marriott STARS); The St. Regis Beijing (Marriott STARS); The St. Regis Shenzhen Bao'an (Marriott STARS); Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen (Mandarin Oriental Fan Club); Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou At West Lake (Four Seasons Preferred Partner); The Ritz-Carlton, Suzhou (Marriott STARS) and The St. Regis Zhuhai (Marriott STARS). Booked through us, each adds a room upgrade where one is free, breakfast for two each day, a hotel credit and early check-in or late checkout when the hotel can give it, at no extra cost to you.
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