Shanghai Office Building - Metro Tower

I am asked to give some suggestions to rent an office in Shanghai. He is considering to open a large branch office for his international company. Well. It seems I had become the Mr. Shanghai who are supposed to know everything about this city - I am obviously not.

However, as you may guess, I may share my ideas about which office is good and which is not - from the perspective of a employer working in the building. TREAT IT AS THE MOST UNPROFESSIONAL ADVICE YOU CAN GET

I chose this topic because this may be of great interest not only to those who are going to open an office, but also to anyone who are planning to relocate to Shanghai. To find out more about the office building you are going to work in before making decision may be a good idea.

This will be series of article with one building per article. Let me get started from the buildings I am most familiar with.

Metro Tower

Metro Tower is mentioned for at least 15 times in this blog. As you may know, this is the office building I am working in.

Famous companies in this building include Microsoft, Electrolux, Exxon Mobile and my favorite company - Yup, the owner of KFC and Pizzahut.

The hardware and software (the service) of the building is so-so. It just met my expectation for a modern office building. The location of the building is among the best of all the buildings, even better than those in Lujiazui. Metro Xujiahui Station is just downstairs and there are five big shopping malls in that area. Any of them is among the largest in Shanghai. There is a very big area of restaurants near the building and I cannot find a better place to enjoy diversified food than this area. The main campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University is just 1.5 km away.

I took a lot of pictures from the top of the building and you get some idea about its location. I guess it is the only Grade A office building in that area so the rent fee is very high. According to SHReLocation.com, the rental fee is 0.6 USD/Sqm/Day.

Elevator

There is 6 elevators in this building, but it is not enough. At rush hours in the morning, you will see long queue of people waiting for the the elevator to get up. Sometimes there are more than 50 people waiting and the end of the queue extends to outside the lobby.

Lobby

The lobby is not so-so - comfortable but not shining.