In Shanghai’s luxury hotel war, heritage is the real moat

What happened This Chinese New Year, Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund transformed into a family intangible heritage workshop, running from New Year’s Eve through the seventh day of the festival. Guests could try paper cutting, ink rubbing, dough figurine crafting and lantern-making — hands-on traditions spanning the holiday — or catch a lion dance performance on the fifth day. The hotel’s two restaurants marked the season with special menus. Wai King Kok (蔚景阁中餐厅) paired seasonal ingredients with auspicious symbolism, while the Grand Brasserie (百味园西餐厅) applied French technique to Eastern dishes. Guests in select rooms could also collect vouchers for dining and spa experiences. The Jing Take According to Bain & Company’s China Personal Luxury Report, released January 29 2026, mainland China’s personal luxury market declined 3-5% in 2025 — a significant moderation from the 17-19% contraction recorded in 2024. The broader direction of travel is clear: McKinsey projects global luxury travel and hospitality spending will reach $391 billion by 2028, up from $239 billion in 2023, as affluent consumers shift from conspicuous goods toward experiential indulgence. Luxury hotels sit at the center of this shift — and the competition is intensifying. Shanghai has welcomed a string of high-profile openings, including Waldorf Astoria Shanghai Qiantan and Thompson Shanghai Expo in 2025, followed by Andaz Shanghai ITC in early 2026. Waldorf Astoria on the Bund’s push into intangible heritage is, in part, a response to this pressure: a bid to offer something newer properties cannot replicate. The contest is no longer defined by service standards or suite size — it is a battle of identity. During the 2025 National Day holiday, the stakes were made visible: faced with interchangeable hotel experiences and elevated room rates, many young Chinese travelers simply pitched tents. In Wuhan, rows of brightly colored tents lined the roadsides near tourist sites — a pointed rebuke to the conventional stay. What they rejected was not the price of luxury, but its sameness. What counts as distinction, then, may not be newer facilities, but memories a city cannot replicate. For Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund, that identity is inseparable from its address. The building at No. 2 on the Bund was completed in 1910 as the home of the Shanghai Club — a British gentlemen’s club and one of colonial-era Shanghai’s most exclusive institutions — before passing through incarnations as the Dongfeng Hotel and, from 2010, the Waldorf Astoria. In 2025, marking the hotel’s 15 anniversary, it staged a public exhibition, “Threads of Time: 15 Chapters” (时空经纬·十五华章), drawing on archival photographs and artifacts to trace that 115-year passage. Heritage architecture is a rare asset, but without narrative it is little more than prime real estate. By opening its history to the public, the hotel moves beyond lodging to assume the role of cultural custodian — a model gaining traction across Shanghai, where brands increasingly gravitate toward plane-tree-lined streets like Anfu and Wukang Roads precisely because a century-old address carries weight that no new mall can manufacture. From landmark building to cultural custodian The first Waldorf Astoria to open in Asia-Pacific, the Bund property marked 15 years in China in 2025 — a milestone the brand used to announce plans for the 115th anniversary of the Long Bar, the 34m mahogany counter that once held the title of longest bar in the Far East. The commemorative event extends the hotel's broader cultural strategy: where the exhibition turned history into a public offering, the Long Bar turns it into an experience guests can order from. That may be the quiet advantage in this contest of identities. Newer properties can match a suite's square footage or a restaurant's Michelin ambitions. What they cannot replicate is a building that has absorbed more than a century of the city's memory — and a brand that knows how to spend it. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

Sectors

Insights

Company

In Shanghai’s luxury hotel war, heritage is the real moat