Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A detail of Astor House
Ryan Pyle/Apa Publications
HISTORIC HOTELS
(Pujiang Fandian; 15 Huangpu Road;
www.pujianghotel.com
). A modest three-star today, it
was once one of the city's most elegant hotels. Spanish architect Abelardo Lafuente renov-
ated the former Peacock Ballroom, with its vaulted ceiling and stately columns, and it now
makes a grand setting for breakfast. The front part of the hotel dates from 1910, but earlier
buildings were the sites of numerous Shanghai firsts: the first electric light, telephone, 'talking
pictures' - even Shanghai's very first taxi service. According to local lore, an Astor House
bellboy, rewarded for recovering a Russian guest's wallet with a third of its contents, spent a
portion of the money on a car. That car became Shanghai's first taxi and spawned the John-
son fleet, today's Qiang Sheng taxi. Photographs of luminaries who once stayed here line the
