Hotel Review: Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai (Premier Suite)
Shanghai is a city I return to often, and my default has always been the Andaz Xintiandi, Shanghai. This trip, I decided to break that habit and try the Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park, my first stay in this part of Changning. The location makes a good case for itself. You are a short ride from Hongqiao Railway Station, which matters if you are pairing Shanghai with Hangzhou, Suzhou or Nanjing on the high speed rail. The caveat is the luggage. Every railway station in China puts you through a security check with bag scanners at the entrance, and hauling a large suitcase through that queue at peak hour is not the gentle start to a trip anyone wants. A Didi is the affordable answer (you can book one directly through the Alipay app without a separate account, which is what most visiting travellers end up doing), but this time I arranged a private transfer through Trip.com instead and let someone else deal with the boot.
Living Room
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
I flew Cathay Pacific economy class via Hong Kong into Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) rather than taking a direct flight, partly because the fares were meaningfully lower and partly because my oneworld Emerald benefits make the connection through Hong Kong a pleasant one rather than a chore. Although I hold World of Hyatt Globalist status, I did not leave the room assignment to chance. I applied a Suite Upgrade Award well ahead of arrival to lock in a Premier Suite. This is worth understanding properly, because a Suite Upgrade Award at this property can be applied to either the Centric Suite at 69 sqm or the larger Premier Suite at 83 sqm. The award costs you the same either way, so there is no reason to settle for the smaller one if the Premier Suite is showing availability. Check-in was smooth despite a late arrival, and walking into the living area confirmed the upgrade was the right call. The room leads with a deep red curved sofa set against a patterned burgundy rug, a marble topped dining table, and a wall mounted screen that greeted me by name. It is a lot of colour for a Hyatt Centric, and it works.
The living room is the first thing you walk into, and it sets the tone for the rest of the suite. It is a genuinely generous space that holds a curved sofa, a coffee table, a round marble dining table with seating for two, a proper desk, and a long bench running beneath the television, all without feeling crowded. What I found more interesting is the layout itself. Rather than being funnelled straight into the living area, the entry corridor gives you a second option. Turning right takes you through a walk-in wardrobe area that opens directly into the bathroom, which means the suite effectively has two circulation routes instead of one. That sounds like a minor detail until you have friends or colleagues over for a drink and realise nobody needs to traipse past your bedroom to reach the bathroom.
Welcome Amenities
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
Waiting on the marble dining table was the welcome amenity, a plate of fresh fruit alongside a handwritten note from Eva in the front office team. The note was written entirely in Chinese, which I can read, though it did amuse me that the assumption was made off a Singaporean passport. It is a small thing and I would rather have a handwritten card in any language than a printed one, but it is the sort of detail that a property catering to international guests might want to think about. As for the amenity itself, I have no real complaint about fruit and a personal note. That said, this was a suite booked for four nights, and a slightly more generous gesture would not have gone amiss. A plate of pastries, some local sweets, or anything that acknowledged the length of the stay would have landed better than the standard fruit plate that any base room guest would receive.
Tucked into the cabinetry beside the entry is a Nespresso machine, with a pull-out drawer below holding capsules, Twinings jasmine green tea, sugar, creamers and a milk frothing jug. This matters more here than it would elsewhere, because the hotel does not have a club lounge. There is no floor to retreat to for a mid-afternoon coffee, so the in-room setup is doing all the work, and it does the job well enough for a morning cup before heading out. That said, I would not spend much time using it. Shanghai has one of the better independent coffee scenes in Asia and the neighbourhood around Zhongshan Park is well served by the major chains, so if the weather is decent you are better off walking five minutes and getting something fresh. Bottled water is also provided, two on arrival, and housekeeping was happy to leave more when I asked.
Bedroom
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
The bedroom sits behind a proper door that closes and locks, which is the detail that separates a genuine suite from a large studio with a partition. Given the dual entry layout I mentioned earlier, it means you can shut the bedroom off entirely and still have guests move between the living room and the bathroom without ever crossing it. The room itself is cosy rather than cavernous, and the design leans warm. There is a king bed against a tan leather headboard set into a textured bronze panel, a pendant light dropping over each nightstand, a chaise longue by the window, and the same deep purple rug carrying through from the living area. The lighting is on the dim side, and while I would have appreciated a brighter setting for getting ready in the morning, it is well judged for what a bedroom is actually for. Combined with blackout blinds and the separation from the rest of the suite, I slept well across all four nights.
Bedside Controls
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
The bedside panel is the sort of thing I always look at closely, because it tells you how much thought went into the room beyond the finishes. Here you get a bank of touch controls covering the curtains and the sheers independently, plus lighting presets for bedroom, bright, reading, soft, a master switch and a night mode. Being able to close the blackout curtains without getting out of bed is a small luxury that I never tire of, and having the sheer on its own circuit means you can keep some daylight without exposing the room. The one thing international guests should note is the power situation. The outlets are the standard Chinese sockets, which accept flat pin plugs but will not take a UK three pin or a European round pin plug, so bring an adapter. There are two USB-A ports built into the panel, but no USB-C, which is an increasingly odd omission in a suite to this standard.
Bathroom
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
The bathroom and toilet occupy a single zone, though they are properly separated within it, and the door from the bedroom opens directly into the toilet end. The design here is the boldest in the suite. Glossy aubergine tiles run across the upper walls and catch the light, set against a speckled terrazzo below, and the colour is a genuine departure from the beige box that most business hotels in this segment default to. The toilet itself is a full electronic bidet unit with a heated seat, which is standard in this part of the world but still worth confirming for anyone who cares. It sits in its own enclosure with a glass partition separating it from the shower, so the wet and dry areas do not bleed into each other. The pass-through arrangement is what makes the dual circulation work in practice, because you can move from the bedroom through to the wardrobe and out to the entry corridor without stepping into the living room at all.
Walk-in Wardrobe
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
Continuing through from the toilet brings you back to the walk-in wardrobe, which is the piece of the layout I flagged earlier when describing the entry. It is a narrow corridor space rather than a room you would linger in, but it is properly fitted out. There is a full length hanging rail with wooden hangers, a bathrobe, a marble topped bench that doubles as a luggage landing spot, and drawers beneath it. Positioning the wardrobe at the entrance rather than inside the bedroom means you can drop your coat and shoes on the way in without disturbing anyone sleeping, and it puts the wardrobe and the bathroom on the same side of the suite, so the entire getting-ready routine happens in one zone.
Bathroom
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
The bathroom proper is the highlight of the suite. A long marble vanity runs the width of the room with twin basins, which genuinely matters if you are travelling as a couple and both trying to get out of the door at the same time. Above it sits a bank of mirrors framed by vertical bulb lighting, the sort of arrangement you would normally find in a dressing room, and it throws even light across your face rather than the harsh downlight most hotel bathrooms settle for. The surrounding mirrors extend the space considerably, and combined with the aubergine tile and terrazzo, the room reads far more dramatic than the square footage suggests. A bathtub sits alongside, set into a marble surround with a step up to it. Personal amenities are provided as standard, and housekeeping was happy to send up additional items when I asked, so there is no need to ration anything over a longer stay.
Bathtub
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
The bathtub deserves its own mention. It is a deep soaking tub sunk into a substantial marble surround, wide enough to stretch out in properly rather than the shallow business hotel tubs that leave your knees exposed. After a day walking around Shanghai in the heat, this was where I ended up most nights. If you would rather not fill a tub, there is a separate walk-in shower enclosed behind glass, so the two are genuinely independent fixtures rather than the shower-over-bath compromise that still shows up in rooms at this price point.
Bath Amenities
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
Bath amenities are the BeeKind range, dispensed from wall mounted bulk bottles inside the shower enclosure. This is entirely consistent with my other Hyatt Centric stays, so if you have spent time in the brand you will know exactly what you are getting. The bulk format is now the default across most of the industry and I have made my peace with it on environmental grounds, though I will admit it takes some of the shine off a suite that otherwise feels a cut above. When the rest of the bathroom is dressed in aubergine tile and marble, a plastic dispenser bolted to the wall is a visible reminder of where the property sits in the Hyatt hierarchy.
View from Bedroom
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
Waking up to a view over Zhongshan Park is the quiet advantage of staying in this pocket of Changning. The park dates back to 1914, when it was laid out as Jessfield Park under the Shanghai Municipal Council, and it retains a distinctly English landscape character with winding paths, ponds and mature plane trees. One of those plane trees is well over a century old and is among the largest in the city. It is a genuinely pleasant place to walk, and it is popular with locals rather than tourists, so an early morning stroll puts you among residents doing tai chi, and the sort of unhurried exercise that Shanghai parks do well. The weather did not co-operate during my stay. It was overcast for most of the four nights with rain on and off, which flattened the view considerably. Even so, having a wall of green outside the window instead of another glass tower is a welcome change from the Xintiandi and Pudong hotels I usually default to.
Breakfast
Scenario 1555 - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
Breakfast is served at Scenario 1555, the hotel's all day dining outlet on the lobby level. The concept is a bistro that blends Shanghai's modern dining culture with Western casual, and the kitchen leans into traditional dishes from Shanghai and the surrounding Jiangnan region alongside a selection of international options. It works the same room across the day, moving from breakfast into afternoon drinks and small plates, then into cocktails with live entertainment in the evening. As a Globalist, breakfast is complimentary, which matters more than usual here given the absence of a club lounge.
Breakfast
Scenario 1555 - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
The good news is that it is genuinely worth turning up for, provided you eat local. The congee station is the standout, served with a proper spread of accompaniments, and I built mine with a salted egg, pickled vegetables, spring onion and a wedge of youtiao dropped in to soften. That, with a side of pan fried radish cake, sautéed green beans and pickled cabbage, is a far better breakfast than anything I would have assembled from the Western side of the buffet. The radish cake in particular was properly crisp at the edges rather than the soggy version that sits under a heat lamp at most hotels. If you are after eggs benedict and a pastry counter, you may find the selection thinner than you would like. If you are happy to eat the way Shanghai eats in the morning, this is a strong showing for a Hyatt Centric and made the missing lounge sting considerably less.
Living Room
Premier Suite - Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
I did not manage to get to the gym during this stay, so I cannot comment on the facilities there. Everything else, though, made a convincing case. Cash rates at the Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park sit at a level that makes the property one of the better value Hyatts in Shanghai, and if you are travelling on a tighter budget there is a Caption by Hyatt directly next door that shares the same location advantages at a lower price point. For anyone with a Suite Upgrade Award to burn, though, the Premier Suite is where the value is, and the 83 sqm footprint with its dual circulation layout, separated bedroom and genuinely impressive bathroom punches well above what the Centric badge suggests. The absence of a club lounge is the one real gap, partly offset by a breakfast that is well worth eating if you are happy with local dishes. Between the connectivity, the rooms and the food, I would not hesitate to book this again, though the Andaz Xintiandi, Shanghai will probably still get the nod when I want to be closer to the centre of things.
Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park Shanghai
1555 Dingxi Road, Changning District, Shanghai, China, 200050
Website
I swapped my usual Andaz Xintiandi, Shanghai for the Hyatt Centric Zhongshan Park and used a Suite Upgrade Award on the 83 sqm Premier Suite. Here is how the room, the breakfast and the missing club lounge stacked up.