@ is usually a short form for “at” but in the case of @ Gallery Suites boutique hotel housed in a 1933 fully restored heritage building on Hengshan Lu (known during the early concession period as the “Champs Elysees of Shanghai”), “@” stands for “art”.

The 39-suite hotel (each suite is larger than 50 sq m) opened in March 2009. It is owned and operated by Connections Hotel Management Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CTC Tourism Holdings, a Singapore-based company involved in tourism marketing and services.

The name of the hotel — @ Gallery — is meant to reflect its aim to be a promoter of local contemporary art. Works of rising artists are hung on its walls while catalogues with various artists’ biographies and portfolios are readily available in each suite and in the public areas

The hotel’s owner intends to collaborate with art associations in the hosting of exhibitions and seminarsand in that way build awareness and appreciation of contemporary artworks to the Chinese and international communities.

@ Gallery Suites, though a lot more modest than what other Singaporean hospitality companies like Banyan Tree and Ascott International Group are doing in China, is nevertheless only a baby step for CTC — which sees it as the first of 20 properties of the same concept planned to be created over five years in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

Another feature of the hotel is that it’s an entirely “smoke-free” because of the non-smoking policy it has put in place.

Then of course there is its location.  Located in the former French Concession, @ Gallery is only a very short walk to the Metro’s Hengshan Lu station (Line 1), from where it’s a short ride to the Bund and Pudong. The Huaihai Lu shopping street (Shanghai’s equivalent to Orchard Road) is only 2 stations away.

To ensure guests remain connected to those they want to be connected, @ Gallery thoughtfully provides them with a mobile phone which offers free local calls while incoming calls are also free.

However, because of its central location and given the traffic in Shanghai, noise pollution could be a problem for some guests, one of whom had complained of noise from the streets from 6 am to midnight.

Too open and chilly?

For guests sharing a suite but aren’t a couple, the lack of a door separating the main room and the bathroom and lavatory could pose a privacy problem; in winter too, such an open concept could make it difficult to get warm in more than 50sq m of space!