What a preconception, man. You think all business in those sauna venues
are from non-chinese? Well, go to one and take a head count. You'll be suprised how many locals go to these places.
As for the list, it is quite dated. The following four have gone down hill for a long time:
1st Alagong ๆฐ ๆทฎ ๆตท (็ฐๅ้ฟๆๅฎซ)
4th: SYQ (่ ๆก ๆณ)
7th: Shijiabao (ๅฃซ ๅ ๅ ก)
9th: Tongrengyuan (ๅ ไป ่)
They are still there but the all have drawbacks in a way or another(if not all ).
Alagong cost you 600RMB per session, has some cuties, but the services there are really awful. Girls tend to finish off as fast as they can and no GFE whatsoever.
SYQ is also 600RMB. Really unacceptable selection there, I was there last week just want to try out my luck and ended up paying 128 for the shower and food as I can't even find an 5.
Shijiabao and Tongrengyuan was the best choices back in 2004 but they've lost a huge amount of good girls and now they are just barely in business. Shijiabao droped the price from 650 to 600 and Tongrengyuan from 600 to 530 just to attract customers.
2nd: Jieyuan (ๅ ๅ)
Still a great place to go, 760 per session with body scrub. Great girls and services. The only bad thing is the crowd. You might need to wait for 1 hour or 2 to get your turn.
3rd: Qiuzhi (็ง ๅญ), 5th: Quanyong (ๆณ ๆถ ), 8th: Chunzhi (ๆฅ ๅญ) are budget choices. All are lower than 400/session. Qiuzhi and Chunzhi are run by the same boss. The commonness in these three are "run-down place with a not bad girl selection".
6th: Chihuiquan (ๆบ ๆ
ง ๆณ), probably the most expensive sauna in Shanghai with almost 1000RMB per session. Great selection of girls but no guarantee of good service as pretty girls tend to give out bad services.
10th: Qiancao Spring (ๆต
่ๆธฉๆณ), never been there but seems to be legit sauna. Just dunno anything about it.
Just for the record, I am a local who make much more than 2000/month but much less than 2000/day.