The caption on a 97 second Instagram reel from @eatitkatie reads, in capital letters, “I SPENT 24 HOURS IN A LUXURY SEAFOOD SPA BUFFET IN CHINA!” It is followed by three hashtags: luxury, buffet and shanghai. It was posted on September 28, 2026, and the caption is the only text attached to it. Neither the caption nor the footage names the venue or shows a price.
What the footage does show is a tour of a place built around staying all day. It opens on a woman standing alone in a long, quiet room lined with glass fronted refrigerators and freezers, stocked with colorful packaged goods. From there it moves through the food, the lounge, the amenities and, finally, a bedroom.
The seafood comes first, as the caption promised. Within the first ten seconds the camera lands on a tall pile of red crustaceans stacked in a metal bowl set in ice, beside smaller bowls of shellfish and a small potted tree used as decoration. A plate of gold wrapped sweets follows, then bottles of white wine chilling in ice.
Next is a wall of fresh produce with a counter below it holding cut watermelon and pineapple, and a hot station where roasted chicken sits in a red pan with peppers, next to menu cards printed in Chinese.
The middle of the reel is the eating. Two women are shown at the table in pink tops. One has a plate of sashimi and shrimp, and in one shot a woman lifts a spoon from a small cup, reacts with wide eyes, then chews with her eyes closed. A tablet displays a menu of photographed dishes. The video does not say what those dishes cost or whether they are included.
After the meal the reel leaves the dining room. A dark lounge glows with pink and purple light, with a large projected tunnel graphic on one wall. Then comes a counter of labeled grooming products, with English labels such as “setting spray” and “loose powder,” and a hair dryer on a stand. The last third shows an empty guest room, a minibar fridge holding bottled drinks, and a breakfast display of pastries, eggs and a baked dish in a pan.
For a reader thinking about a trip like this, the first question is entry. The Shanghai municipal government’s visa page says the 240 hour visa free transit policy covers 57 countries and that the United States is among them. It allows stays of up to 240 hours for tourism, business, visits and family reunions, as long as the traveler holds valid travel documents and an onward ticket with a confirmed seat and departure date to a third country or region. The reel does not say how its creator entered China, so that rule is context for planning, not a statement about this trip.
The second question is how to eat at a buffet that leans on raw and chilled seafood. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says on its food safety page for expectant mothers that raw fish, including sushi and sashimi, is more likely than cooked fish to contain parasites or bacteria, and it advises against eating raw or undercooked shellfish, naming oysters, clams and mussels. The same FDA page tells diners to discard perishable food left at room temperature for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour when the temperature is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Those are rules a diner can apply at any seafood station, including the shellfish and sashimi shown in this reel.
The video never states a price, so a booking plan should start with the venue itself. A traveler comparing places like this can ask each one for the same list before paying: which meals are included, whether the screen menu items cost extra, whether alcohol is part of the price, and how long the check in window lasts.
