I stepped out of the taxi, the doorman picked up my suitcase and I seem to have immediately ruined a couple of other people’s shots. To my surprise, I noticed that crowds of people around me were standing at the ready with smartphones and cameras. “Some celebrity must be staying here,” I thought with a smirk as I walked through the old revolving doors. But it turned out that the celebrity was the hotel itself. Everyone was photographing it: the exterior, with the words “The Peace Hotel” polished to a shine on the canopy.
As soon as you enter the lobby, you instinctively tilt your head back to look up at the octagonal dome. There is no denying it: all of this makes an impression. This is no longer simply an Art Deco hotel; it is a witness to Shanghai’s history, one that has preserved the glamour of the 1930s, with its mosaics, wrought-iron chandeliers and historic artefacts. It is a real museum, and I am going to spend several nights in it. The lobby once housed a gallery of boutiques selling English cashmere, French perfume and Rolex watches. Today, only a shimmering statue of a dove, the symbol of peace, stands in the centre.
Of all the architectural grandees lining the Bund, Fairmont Peace Hotel probably has the best location. Step outside in the evening and you immediately find yourself in the thick of the crowds taking thousands of photographs along the promenade, with glittering Pudong across the river. Leave through another door and you are straight onto Nanjing Road, where shops belonging to all the world’s leading brands stay open until late in the evening.
The hotel once occupied two buildings. The Palace Hotel was housed in the South Building. The North Building became the Cathay Hotel, with its distinctive green pyramid on the roof, and opened with great fanfare a little later, in 1929.
It immediately became iconic, with fashionable restaurants, an English pub, a French cabaret and a jazz club. The rooms had mahogany furniture and lamps with shades designed by René Lalique. This was where the establishment gathered, where New Year’s Eve was celebrated and grand receptions were held in honour of distinguished guests. The list of hotel guests reads like a roll call of the stars and prominent politicians of the day.
The hotel museum, which you can visit on a guided tour even if you are not staying here, tells stories of the lavish receptions once held at the hotel, and of visits by British field marshals, American presidents and delegates from numerous countries.
The hotel’s founder, British entrepreneur of Jewish descent Victor Sassoon, was determined to make his brainchild the jewel in Shanghai’s architectural crown. He lived here too, in the penthouse on the 10th floor, which is now the Presidential Suite. Sassoon witnessed both its heyday and its decline. He left China during the Second World War, when the hotel became a base for Japanese troops. He never returned to Shanghai.
Wars continued to torment Shanghai, and China as a whole, for many years. The hotel closed in 1947 and was brought back to life in 1956. The Peace Hotel became a symbol of life in peacetime. It was owned by the Chinese government, which, however, did nothing to affect the standard of service. In recent years, the hotel has been managed by Fairmont, which has brought every smallest detail close to perfection. Soon, the hotel will become part of the Raffles group.
I stayed in a cosy Deluxe room overlooking Nanjing Road, with an enormous bed piled high with soft pillows, a spacious bathroom and a walk-in wardrobe. The suites, however, offer the best views of the Huangpu River and all of Shanghai’s towers. There are nine glamorous suites decorated in the national styles of nine countries with which the hotel’s owner had connections in the 1930s. Their interiors have barely changed since the last renovation in 2007. Only the fireplaces have become decorative, for safety reasons.
The stained-glass windows have survived, and the parquet floors are still polished every day. Of all the suites that were available during my stay (English, Japanese, German and Italian), I liked the Indian Suite best, with its intricately carved doors, stained-glass windows and elephant figurines.
The hotel is so popular that you are unlikely to be able to go downstairs for a coffee and the signature éclair at Victor’s Café without booking in advance: it is always crowded. It is also better to reserve a table in your name at Dragon & Phoenix, one of the city’s most popular Chinese restaurants (the traditional noodles here really are very good), as well as on the open terrace of The Cathay Room and in the jazz bar, where the oldest jazz band in the world performs. The grey-haired musicians play for six hours straight every evening as if their average age were nowhere near 82. For my birthday, the band performed a splendid cover of Happy Birthday.
A historic, even slightly prim hotel, with long corridors, wooden staircases and doormen standing ramrod straight, always calls for a certain degree of ceremony. You cannot really go down to breakfast in flip-flops and whatever T-shirt happens to be at hand. Although there is a particular kind of chic in that too. I had breakfast in the Fairmont Gold Lounge, where that Old Money aura still lingers. Everything here is proper, delicious and… quiet. Someone is reading the morning paper; someone else is leisurely enjoying an excellent cup of tea.
My travel game at the Fairmont Peace Hotel was a success. But there is one “but” to this historical experience. The ceremonious atmosphere lends itself to a relatively short stay. A few days are quite enough; after that, you start to tire a little of all the ceremony and find yourself craving neoclassicism. The best thing you can do is give yourself a couple of “nights at the museum”, then change the scenery for something that suits the Shanghai of today very well indeed.
270 rooms (from $441 per night) and nine Nation Suites (from $1,100 per night).
Heated indoor swimming pool and fitness centre.
Dragon & Phoenix serves old-style Chinese cuisine. The Cathay Room specialises in French cuisine and hosts wonderful Sunday brunches. Victor’s Café is a good place for lunch, although it is better known for its afternoon teas, signature desserts and pastries.
Willow Stream Spa has several treatment rooms. Its signature Bamboo Fusion massage is a 90-minute treatment using warm bamboo sticks.
A guided tour of The Peace Hotel Museum, whose collection includes menus, various objects, cutlery and photographs of VIP guests, lasts 30 minutes. Hotel guests can visit the museum free of charge; visitors who are not staying at the hotel can buy a ticket for 128 yuan. The museum is open daily, with English-language tours twice a day, at 9:00 and 19:00.
Season: summers in Shanghai are humid, muggy and hot. The meiyu, or “plum rain”, season begins in mid-June and lasts for around a month. Typhoon season peaks in late August and early September. Avoid these periods, and the rest of the year can be considered ideal for a trip to Shanghai.
Getting there: the hotel is approximately 50 km from Pudong Airport. The journey by taxi takes around an hour. Nanjing East Road station on Metro Line 2 is 500 metres from the hotel.
Travel reportage
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