The Fascination of the Colonial past and the Look towards the Future.
Once Upon a Time the Cathay Hotel: an icon of luxury in the colonial Shangai scene of the 1930s. In Art Deco style, with an avant-garde architecture for the time, Sir Victor Sassoon‘s “creature” set a new standard in the luxury hotel sector, both for the construction and for the modern services available to guests. So it soon became a meeting place for the exponents of the Jet Set and International Business. Later (1956) it took the name of Peace Hotel.
With the passing of the decades and with the alternating historical events that have seen Shangai protagonist, the Peace Hotel slowly lost importance and part of its past glory. This, at least until 2010, when a thorough restoration by the Fairmont Group gave back the Hotel to the splendor of its glorious past. Now, the Bund of the Chinese city has once again one of its icons in its full splendor.
The restoration has paid particular attention to all those original details that could be preserved, despite the perspective of the necessary modernization and adaptation to the security criteria currently required. Also parts of the building sold in the past have been recovered and extensions have been added to add further “features” typical of the hotels of this level. A difficult challenge, but brilliantly completed by the joint work of the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Group and Jin Jiang International Group, Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA) and Allied Architects International.
Now the Peace Hotel has 270 rooms and suites, all of the state-of-the-art facilities, numerous restaurants and bars: Dragon Phoenix, Cathay Room, Jasmine Lounge, Victor’s Café and the historic Jazz Bar, which has always been a meeting place for lovers of this music. Banquet rooms, meeting rooms and the Willow Stream SPA are not missing of course, to satisfy every need of the most demanding customers.
China has now become an increasingly important destination, both for commercial operators, and for tourism and Shanghai is certainly not an exception. The Fairmont Peace Hotel allows a stay with the highest standards of excellence, mixed with the pleasure of reliving in a fascinating past, while being in a modern metropolis: as can be appreciated from the view that can be enjoyed from its rooms.
Texts © iBESTmag – Images courtesy of Fairmont Peace Hotel – Reproduction Prohibited
