life at the hojo

here's where i've been staying for the past couple of weeks and where i'll be at least through the end of the year. it's the hojo shanghai!


hotels in shanghai are notoriously difficult to book, so when my company told me they couldn't put me into their normal hotel and i'd be in the howard johnson i was prepared for the worst.

in america the howard johnson chain has a reputation for being one step over a motel, somewhere one might stay if driving cross-country and need just a bed and a pillow. you can read about peoples' wonderful hojo adventures here.

so i was surprised to find that the howard johnson is a brand new hotel, doing it's best impression of a 5-star facility. there's a (little used) gym, spa, several restaurants, and the rooms are very nice.

really the only issue has been with the service, as it seems like everyone is still getting used to how things work. room service is a good example, as every time i call it seems like i'm the first person ever to have ordered anything. then there's housekeeping which invariably knocks on my door at around 8am unless i turn my 'do not disturb' light on.

last friday i was settling in for an early night when there was a lot of commotion outside my door. i thought it was some people walking down the hall who had stopped near my room, but i peeped through my door only to find that about a dozen people had rented a single room across from mine and were using it as a staging area before heading out on the down.

they were shouting and carrying on so loudly (with their door open) that i couldn't sleep. all of a sudden they became very quiet so i looked out again to see if they'd left. saw a weird sight of a man standing with his back facing the bathroom door, reminding me very much of alfred hitchcock.


i'm in a very busy part of town, near a major pedestrian shopping street called nanjing donglu. there's really no equivalent in bangkok, though i suppose the closest could be staying on silom road in terms of how busy this area is.

here's a view looking down from my window:


on the bottom-left side of the photo is a dvd store that during the day puts some large speakers outside and blasts an ecclectic mix of western music, ranging from coco lee to ub40. all three buildings at the intersection are apartments and there's a convenience store at the corner which i've used a couple of times.


at night shanghai really puts on a show- most tall buildings are well-lit, not just by ordinary spotlights as with the all seasons buildings in bangkok but with multi-colored lights and neon, often in moving patterns.

even though the building on the right-side isn't in a big intersection it has a series of horizontal lights that change colors from red to green to blue and move in changing patterns.

the architecture here really is amazing- such a mix of contemporary styling and the old ex-colonial architecture. i'll definitely try and take some photos of the more interesting places for you to see.