Shanghai has finally stepped into the future by trading in skyscrapers and welcoming design and intimacy hotels aimed to please the urban travelers of today. Three new designer boutique hotels are adding allure to this city’s hospitality industry.

Jia Shanghai - opening soon - The 55-room boutique hotel is located in a unique 1926 building in the heart of the city’s shopping and entertainment district on Nanjing Road and Taqixing Road. Sister to the successful Jia Hong Kong, this hotel is located within a former apartment building where you will find the interiors are modern but warm, an Italian restaurant on the second floor to be managed by the celebrity chef Salvatore Cuomo and a bar with rooftop lounge are in the works.

The Mansion Hotel (pictured above) is part luxury boutique hotel (32 rooms), part museum. The villa has a colorful history as the Mansion Hotel was originally built as the residence of Sun Ting Sun, a partner of the infamous Shanghai syndicate boss Du Yue Sheng, until the liberation of Shanghai in 1949. During this period the villa was also used to operate the organizations legitimate and illegitimate business operations and at night the cities most extravagant parties attended by the city’s most influential residents.

No. 9 (9 Lane, Jianguo West Road 6471-9950) Difficult to find, this five-room charming guesthouse in a 1920s mansion tucked down a quiet lane, No. 9 blends China’s distant past, recent history and immediate future in equal measure: Life-size wooden gods from the walled city of Pingyao guard the ground floor, Deco wardrobes and desks adorn the guest rooms, and high-tech touches like Wi-Fi, touch-sensitive desk lamps and heated mattresses abound.