Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Peace Hotel to Hankou Lu
Straddling the eastern end of Nanjing Dong Lu is one of the most famous
hotels in China, the
Peace Hotel
, formerly the
Cathay Hotel
. T The hotel's main
building (on the north side of Nanjing Dong Lu) is a relic of another great
trading house,
Sassoon's
, and was originally known as Sassoon House. Like
Jardine's, the Sassoon business empire was built on opium trading, but by the
early years of the last century the family fortune had mostly been sunk into
Shanghai real estate, including the
Cathay
(see box below). Nicknamed “The
Claridges of the Far East” it was
the
place to be seen in prewar Shanghai:
e
Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin were among its celebrity guests and
Noel Coward is supposed to have written
Private Lives
here while laid up with
flu. It boasted innovations such as telephones in the rooms before any European
hotels, and had such luxuries as a private plumbing system fed by a spring on
the outskirts of town, marble baths with silver taps and vitreous china lavatories
imported from Britain. The
Peace
today is well worth a visit for the bar, with its
legendary jazz band (see p.125), and for a walk around the lobby and upper
floors to take in the splendid Art Deco elegance. There's a good view of the
Bund from the balcony of the seventh-floor bar - staff will tolerate curious
visitors popping in for a quick look.
The smaller wing on the south side of Nanjing Dong Lu was originally the
Palace Hotel
, built around 1906; its first floor now holds the Western-style
Peace Café
.
Victor Sassoon
“There is only one race finer than the Jews, and that's the Derby.”
More than anyone, it was Victor Sassoon (1881-1961), infamous tycoon and bon
vivant, who shaped Shanghai's prewar character. The Sassoons were Sephardic
Jews from Iraq, whose family fortune was built by trading in India. Victor, one of the
fourth generation (which included the writer Siegfried Sassoon) astonished the family
by moving the company assets out of India and into China - largely, it is said, to
dodge the British taxman. “Sir Victor” as he liked to be known, began pouring
millions of dollars into Shanghai in the 1920s, virtually single-handedly setting off a
high-rise real estate boom that was to last almost a decade. His Art Deco construc-
tions include what have become many of the city's most distinctive landmarks,
among them: Hamilton House and the Metropole Hotel (see p.107), facing each other
at the intersection of Fuzhou Lu and Jiangxi Lu; the Cathay Theatre on Huaihai Zhong
Lu (see p.75); the Orient Hotel on Xizang Zhong Lu near People's Square; the
Embarkment Building on Suzhou Bei Lu; Cathay Mansions (now the Jinjiang Hotel;
see p.75); and the enduring landmark of the Bund, the Cathay Hotel (now the Peace
Hotel; see above).
At the Cathay, Victor lived in a penthouse with a 360-degree view over the city, and
indulged his tastes for the finest of everything - including women. His suite had two
bathtubs because, he said, he liked to share his bed but never his bath. As described
by Stella Dong in Shanghai, the Rise and Fall of a Decadent City, his parties sound
dazzling. At his shipwreck party, guests came dressed as if they were abandoning
ship; the prize for best costume was awarded to a couple who were naked except
for a shower curtain. At his circus parties, guests would come as clowns or acrobats
while he, of course, played ringmaster, in top hat and tails and wielding a riding crop.
Victor's world came crashing down with the Japanese invasion, though he was able
to spirit most of his fortune away to the Bahamas, where he died in 1961.
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