★ Highest views in the city
Glittering 58th-floor rooftop bar at the Ritz-Carlton Pudong — the highest al-fresco terrace in the city, with knockout Bund and Oriental Pearl views. A glamour stop, not a scene venue.
Flair sits on the 58th floor of the Ritz-Carlton Shanghai Pudong, up in the Lujiazui sky — one of the highest rooftop bars in the world and the highest open-air dining terrace in China. Two bars, an amphitheatre-style split-level terrace, lounge seating and a contemporary Asian small-plates menu with proper cocktails; it reopened in early 2023 with a sleek redesign. The reason to come is the view: floor-to-ceiling and open-air panoramas of the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Bund and the Huangpu River laid out below you.
Be honest with yourself about what this is — a high-end, see-the-skyline glamour spot rather than a gay venue. It turns up in gay travel guides only as a beautiful place worth a drink, with no LGBTQ programming or crowd to speak of. Treat it as the dressed-up cocktail with a view to bookend an evening before you head across the river to the real scene in the French Concession. Dinner runs Sunday to Thursday 5:30pm–1am and till 2am on Fridays and Saturdays; it's 18-plus, and weekend brunch is a thing too. Expect high minimum spends for the prime view seats, so reserve ahead.