Night Views on Cloudy or Rainy Days
After reading this, you can decide how to change your night-view plans even on bad-weather days.
It's a real letdown when you go to see Shanghai's night view and the sky is cloudy.
It's a real letdown when you go to see Shanghai's night view and the sky is cloudy.
Looking into Oriental Pearl Tower view hotels, I saw that on rainy days the tower looks hazy.
Even at hotels right next to the tower, like The Ritz-Carlton Pudong, the tower looks blurry on rainy days.
You can't choose the weather, but you can reduce the disappointment by how you plan your schedule and hotel.
Split your night-view evenings over two nights
The easiest way is not to put all your night-view chances on one day.
If you're staying in Shanghai three days or more, set aside two evenings for the night view.
If the weather is bad on the first evening, go out to the riverside again on the second.
Just move your other plans around to match the clear day.
If you keep indoor plans like museums for rainy days, it's easy to swap.
JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai at Tomorrow Square is about a 14-minute walk to the Shanghai Museum, so it's good for spending a rainy afternoon at the museum.
If you're booking an expensive view room, be even more careful.
With a Pearl Tower View or River View room, bad weather blurs the window view and takes away the reason you booked it.
So it's best to book a view room with the weather in mind.
If your dates are fixed, put the view room on a night in the middle or toward the end of your trip.
That's because you can decide after seeing the weather forecast for the coming days.
Prices change by date, so check them for your own dates.
If it's 1 night, if it's 3 nights
If you have just 1 night, it's best not to bet everything on one view room.
If it rains that day, the window view is blurry and you have no other day to switch to.
For 1 night, it's less disappointing to book a hotel with an easy walk to the Bund and head to the riverside when the rain lets up.
For 3 nights, you could also stay the first two nights at a well-located hotel and move to a view room only for the last night.
In the meantime, the weather forecast becomes more accurate.
You'll have to move once with your bags, so check the check-in times first.
At Hyatt On The Bund, check-in is after 15:00, and at Puyan Hotel Shanghai The Bund after 16:00.
On cloudy days, get closer
On foggy or hazy days, things in the distance blur first.
The North Bund is the spot where you see the Oriental Pearl Tower wide across the river.
On clear days this distance is an advantage, but on cloudy days the tower can look hazy.
On those days, I think it's better to cross the river to Lujiazui and see the tower up close.
How to cross is summarized in How to cross the river from the Bund to Lujiazui.
If you cross the river while it's raining, Metro Line 2 is convenient.
Board at East Nanjing Road Station and get off at Lujiazui Station.
With the ferry, you have to walk to the pier to board, and according to the Shanghai Municipal Government, the Dongjin Line connecting the Bund and Lujiazui runs only during the day.
The Dongfu Line, which runs at night, also ends at 9 p.m.
You can also go up inside the Oriental Pearl Tower.
The Shanghai official tourism site says the Oriental Pearl Tower is open daily 08:00~22:00 with last entry at 21:00.
But on days with low clouds, the view from the top can be hazy too.
Night views from inside your room
When it rains, it's hard to stand on the riverside for long.
At times like this, a hotel where you can see the night view from your room is convenient.
At The Eton Hotel Shanghai, you can see the three towers and the boats on the Huangpu River while lying in bed.
At Hyatt On The Bund, you can see the three Lujiazui towers at a glance from high-floor rooms.
At Shanghai Marriott Marquis City Centre, the Bund-view rooms look straight out at the Oriental Pearl Tower.
At Puyan Hotel Shanghai The Bund, there's a sofa in front of the curved floor-to-ceiling window, so you can sit and watch the riverside at night.
If you've booked a view room, mention it once more at check-in.
At The Ritz-Carlton Pudong, a room facing the Oriental Pearl Tower head-on is sometimes only assigned if you make a separate request to the rooms division.
Waiting for room assignment can delay check-in, so leave yourself some time.
You can also watch from an indoor pool.
Grand Hyatt Shanghai has an indoor pool with a view.
At Regent Shanghai Pudong, the Oriental Pearl Tower stands right in front of the window of the 41st-floor indoor pool.
Whether to watch from the room, the bathtub, or the pool is covered more in Where to watch the night view inside your room: bed, bathtub, pool.
Resting inside the hotel on rainy days
On days when it's hard to go out, the hotel facilities become half your schedule.
Grand Central Hotel Shanghai has an indoor pool, spa, sauna, and steam room.
Shanghai Marriott Marquis City Centre also has an indoor pool, spa, and sauna.
Hyatt On The Bund also has an indoor pool and spa.
They're good for warming up after coming in from the rain.
If you don't want to eat dinner out, order delivery.
At Hanting Hotel Shanghai Bund Great World Subway Station and JI Hotel (Shanghai The Bund Jinling East Road), a robot brings delivery food to your room.
At Grand Hyatt, you pick up delivery food yourself on the 1st floor.
If you're going with parents or kids
When you're with others, staying out long on a rainy day is even harder.
If you're going with your parents, a place where you can see the night view from your room and relax inside the hotel is good.
Grand Central Hotel is an easy hotel to stay at with parents or a big family.
The Deluxe Business Twin Room has two double beds and sleeps up to 3 adults.
If you're with kids, having things to play with in the room makes a rainy evening feel shorter.
Puyan Hotel has kids' rooms with a slide or a tent.
They also have children's books and toys.
You can see Suzhou Creek and the Oriental Pearl Tower outside the window too, so when the rain stops you can see the night view right from your room.
Cut down on walking on rainy days
If you stay on the East Nanjing Road side, you walk to the Bund.
When it rains, this route feels long.
If it's a season when rain is a worry, look at hotels closer to the Bund.
JI Hotel Shanghai The Bund Sichuan Zhong Road is 3 to 4 hundred meters from the Bund.
Puyan Hotel is about a 5-minute walk to East Nanjing Road Station.
Hanting Hotel Bund Great World has Metro Line 8 and Line 14 entrances across the street.
On days you don't want to walk, call a taxi.
Grand Central Hotel has an entrance that's easy for getting in and out of a DiDi.
At Yitel Premium Shanghai People's Square, it's easy to catch a taxi right in front of the hotel.
Rainy evenings at a hotel bar
On days when it's hard to stand on the riverside, you can look for a hotel bar or restaurant with a night view.
At Flair, the bar on a high floor of The Ritz-Carlton Pudong, you see the Bund on the left and the Oriental Pearl Tower on the right.
Guests of that hotel go up without lining up in front of the bar.
The 5th-floor bar at the Haiou Regent on the Bund side is a place to listen to jazz and watch the Bund night view.
The terrace of the same hotel's 2nd-floor restaurant faces the Oriental Pearl Tower head-on, but on rainy days indoor seats are better than the terrace.
At the Fairmont Peace Hotel bar, a jazz band continuing a tradition from the 1930s plays.
Ask the hotel before you go whether the bar seats are indoors and whether you can get a window seat.
Dry your wet clothes at your hotel
When you come back from the rain, your clothes and shoes are wet.
A hotel where you can do laundry mid-trip makes the next day easier.
Puyan Hotel has a self-service laundry room on the 4th floor.
At Hanting Hotel Bund Great World, the washers and dryers are powerful, and it sends a notification when a machine is free.
This hotel also has a drying rack in the bathroom.
Yitel Premium has washers and dryers.
Meta Tree Hotel, People's Square, City Center In Shanghai also has a laundry room with washers and dryers, plus a delivery robot.
At Citadines Apart Hotel Lujiazui Shanghai, there's a washing machine in the room, so you can finish drying in your room.
Other questions
Do the lights come on even on rainy days?
The Shanghai Municipal Government's holiday lighting notices say nothing about switching off due to weather.
Lighting hours and days without a show are summarized in When do the Bund lights turn on?.
Can I go out to the Bund riverside on a rainy night?
The official tourism site says the Bund riverside is open all day.
If you see a break in the rain, step out briefly then.
