Lonely Planet Review

This distinguished old gentleman dates from 1846, when it was Shanghai's first hotel, and the list of former guests includes Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and Charlie Chaplin. Rooms once occupied by such famous folk cost around 1600. With its thick lacquered walls, high ceilings, wooden floorboards and winding corridors, it has a feel that's somewhere between a Victorian asylum and an English boarding school. But the rooms are huge.

You'll have to go to the business centre to access the internet, but how can you not love a hotel that makes its male staff dress in spats, kilts and black tailcoats?