Baolong Homelike Hotel: Convenient But Boring Hotel Location

 

Recently, I was on my to Shanghai’s Pudong International for a flight back to New Jersey. I went a day in advance with the idea that I would stay overnight and not have to rush. I eventually missed that flight, but that is another story for another time.  At the time,  I didn’t have a reservation, and lugging a bulky suitcase around Shanghai while looking for a vacancy didn’t seem like a good idea. You could classify that as poor planning on my part, actually.  So, once I got off the train at Hongqiao, I figured I would try the Tourist Information Service desk.  I quickly learned that they could hook me up with a hotel that would send a driver to pick me up. The total one night room charge was 420 RMB, so I thought to give it a try.

 

Baolong Homelike Hotel was about a five minute drive away. From the exterior, it looked nice. The inside looked nice too.

The room itself seemed comfy and cozy.

However, my visit started to go a little downhill quickly. I need to quit smoking, and had I brought my vaporizer, this wouldn’t have been an issue.

Baolong is a completely smoke free hotel. There are bilingual notices everywhere — specifically where public ashtrays used to be. People still use some of them as ashtrays, though.  Another issue was this.

This was the view from my window. The clanking and banging of construction actually went through the night. Then there is the area around the hotel itself.

There really is nothing in this area but construction and other hotels servicing travelers from Hongqiao’s airport and train station. The shopping options around here were extremely limited.

There was a small shopping center with a grocery store. The “pizza and Chinese” place didn’t actually have pizza on their menu. The other strange thing about this place was all of the people sitting around on their cell phones, bored. Did I say this area of Shanghai really doesn’t not have much of anything to do? The other, more annoying problem was this.

The area is filled with broken, non-functional ATMs. The only one that did work had no cash in it. The more bizarre thing were doors that promised access to a cash machine, but that was until you opened them.

And saw nothing but an empty wall and your own shadow. So, the final judgement on Boalong Homelike Hotel goes like this, and I would say this for all the hotels in this area. The only reason to book a room here is if you have a layover and need to kill time while being conveniently not that far away from Hongqiao’s airport and train station.  It’s not a suitable midway point if you are trying to break up getting to Pudong International while traveling in from out of town.