Shanghai Lanshan Youth Hostel

I really liked staying here. Staff was very friendly and helpful. The location really was great, a great residential neighborhood with a street market right outside so on the way to the subway you could easily meander around shopping for a few things here and there and eating lots of different kids of street food. I found this to be the best part. It is about a 10 minute walk to the metro station (either Yonghua or Changqing). From there it was maybe 20/30 minutes to get to the bund area downtown. For those of you that are interested in staying right there near the Bund this certainly wouldn't be the place for you, but it will be much more expensive. A few things that I could complain about were the lack of amenities offered. No toilet paper (not even communal outside the bathrooms) No soap to wash your hands with at the sinks, no towels to dry your hands with. And to take a shower you can rent a towel....but its a tiny hand towel! Cmon guys. At least give us a full towel. No soap at the wash station was definitely irksome as well, like I realize that you are trying to save money, but there comes a point. Besides that this is a very quiet hostel, it's mostly filled with Chinese visitors who keep to themselves. There are tables in a common room area, but few people use them, so there isn't a lot of mingling going on between new friends. But that could change given the right group and circumstances! Overall I really liked staying here because I was just using the hostel to sleep in and leave from. Great neighboorhood, pretty nice beds, the AC also functions as a heater. Rooms were clean and staff was friendly.