The legendary Peace Hotel (Heping Fandian) has hosted some of Shanghai's most notable foreign visitors and witnessed much of the remarkable drama of the city's numerous transformations. Situated in the midst of the Bund, the hotel's reputation for cultured luxury has given way in recent years to one for funny smells, the occasional cockroach, and erratic climate control, even as many visitors were happy to sacrifice a little comfort for a taste of old Shanghai.
The need for an overhaul of the old building has led the state-owned hotel to begin extensive renovations in partnership with Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, and the Fairmont Peace Hotel Shanghai is slated to open in 2009—just in time for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. This means, however, that the hotel will be completely closed until then. In the meantime, the hotels' historic facades remain major Bund sights.
Today's Peace Hotel consists of two buildings, each of which began their lives as different establishments. Facing the Huangpu River with a commanding view of the Pudong skyline, the distinctive 12-story copper pyramid-capped former Cathay Hotel, situated just to the north of Nanjing Dong Lu, was completed in 1929 under the direction of famed real-estate kingpin Sir Victor Sassoon. Sitting just across Nanjing Lu to the south, the former Palace Hotel now serves as the Peace Hotel's second wing. A fine specimen of neo-Renaissance architecture, the old six-story Palace, opened in 1908, is a historical treasure in its own right, though often overshadowed by its taller, more glamorous neighbor.
Prior to closing for renovation, the hotel's art deco rooms retained the feel of the 1930s, and once the revitalized Peace opens, guests will be able to sleep where Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, Song Qingling, Noel Coward and other luminaries bedded down. The Peace Hotel Jazz Bar, long the home of nostaligia for Shanghai's previous decadent heyday, has been home to the Old Jazz Band since the early '80s; we trust that the new management will bring back this favorite of tourists and locals alike. Indeed, the plan is to maintain the essence of the buildings' historical ambience while bringing them up to twenty-first century standards of comfort and technology.
The hotel's reputation virtually guarantees that it will be booked solid when it reopens, so if you plan on staying at the Peace Hotel when it does, make reservations as soon as possible.
