Review of Mansion Hotel, by Brent Hannon

The Mansion is no cuddly boutique; it is a grand hotel in miniature, small in stature but large in palatial trappings and old world charm. It has just 30 rooms, but its garden courtyard, high-ceilinged lobby, first-rate fittings and dressy doormen evoke images of classical grandeur. This is magnified when the four-meter front doors slide open to expose a spacious lobby, super-stuffed with antiques, replicas, fusion furniture, Shanghai curios and other ornate details.

Among the genuine antiques are some clever blending of old and new, the work of hotel designer Dr. Yin Ding, who calls such designs “creative replicas”. The furniture typifies Dr. Yin’s approach to the hotel itself. The wood tones, thick carpets, furnishings, fireplaces, full-length doors and chandeliers are meant to evoke the city’s glorious past, but with a hint of the super-modern - “without the modern details it would be pure Art Deco, and we didn't want that,” says Dr. Yin.

Inside the rooms, it’s the same effortless mix of old and new: carpeted wood floors, antique mirrors and chandeliered ceilings are blended with clever fusion fittings, like double-glazed windows, Jacuzzi baths and flick-on gas fireplaces. As for location, the leafy plane trees and quiet lanes are a complete giveaway for pure French Concession. The building formerly belonged to Green Gang boss ‘Big Eared’ Du, a gangster so notorious that he once kidnapped the wife of Chiang Kai-shek.

The Mansion stresses dining more than most boutique hotels. It has a small Cantonese restaurant on the ground floor and the roof is home to Magnolia, a jewel of a dining room with tall, arched wood ceilings, sparkling windows and terrific views. If old Shanghai didn’t look like this, then it should have.