...@samgaskin, for his hilarious (and kind of sexy!) tweet: "I’d buy Natalie Portman 2 tattoos. On her left thigh RITZ & her right CARLTON but I’d use retroactive ink so they’re in Closer" as an answer to Ctrip's question: If we gave you 1,000 RMB to spend, what would you do to show the world your appreciation to the Ritz Carlton for your amazing free stay? We knew that movie was good for something! Congrats, and enjoy your free weekend stay at the Portman Ritz Carlton's sweet Club Executive Suite (worth around 15,000RMB). And thank you Ctrip! more ›

Ctrip is hosting a Twitter competition to give away the sweet prize of weekend stay at the Portman Ritz Carlton’s Club Executive Suite (worth around 15,000RMB) and guess who's the guest judge? Everybody's favorite city blog - that's right, us (and don't you try to tell us differently). All you have to do to possibly win your stay at the Ritz is to answer this question from Ctrip: "If we gave you 1,000 RMB to spend, what would you do to show the world your appreciation to the Ritz Carlton for your amazing free stay?" as awesomely as possible. It can be funny, it can be touching, it can be plain weird - just Twitter Ctrip something 140 characters long that will make our eyes pop. (While you are at it, follow us on Twitter, too.) more ›

It was our good friend Anna Jacyszyn's penultimate night singing at the newly renovated Ritz-Carlton 2nd floor jazz bar, so we went by last night to hear her. Little had we realized, the band is once again playing in their old haunt on the second floor that has been undergoing renovation for at least a few months (6 or more it seems). The bar was originally scheduled to reopen much earlier than now, but the extension of renovation time seemed to coincide with reports of billowing black smoke from the 2nd floor windows of the hotel around the original finish date. So until just a week and a half ago, the band had been performing in the lobby lounge, which we understand was not as inspiring a performance venue for them. more ›

I got to the lobby with my camera but the staff made me delete the photos I got. I have some from the outside on my Flickr page tagged with Shanghaiist. more ›