Fairmont Peace Hotel

Lording it over the corner of East Nanjing Rd and East Zhongshan Rd is the most famous building on the Bund, the landmark Fairmont Peace Hotel, constructed between 1926 and 1929. It was originally built as Sassoon House, with Victor Sassoon’s famous Cathay Hotel on the 4th to 7th floors. It wasn’t for the hoi polloi, with a guest list running to Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw and Noel Coward, who penned Private Lives here in four days in 1930 when he had the flu. Sassoon himself spent weekdays in his personal suite on the top floor, just beneath the green pyramid. The building was renamed the Peace Hotel in 1956.

Even if you aren’t a guest, pop in to admire the wonderful art-deco lobby and magnificent rotunda or listen to the old jazz band (Click here) in the evening. It’s also possible to arrange an hour-long tour (Y100) of the premises through the Peace Gallery ( 6321 6888, ext 6751; 10am-7pm), a small, museum-like space that contains hotel memorabilia and is hidden up a flight of stairs near the main entrance. It’s recommended you book a half-day in advance.

What’s in a Name?

The Bund gets its Anglo-Indian name from the embankments built up to discourage flooding (a band is an embankment in Hindi). There’s some debate over how to say the word, though given its origins, it’s likely the correct pronunciation is ‘bunned’, not ‘booned’.

The Shanghai Club, at No 2 on the Bund, originally had 20 rooms for residents, but its most famous accoutrement was its bar – at 34m said to be the longest in Asia. Once one of the most exclusive spots in the city, the building lost considerable face in the 1990s when a KFC set up inside, but has recently found redemption with the opening of the Waldorf Astoria.

River Cruise

The Bund’s monumental facades presented an imposing – if strikingly un-Chinese – view for those arriving in the busy port. For a glimpse of how it might have looked, take a river cruise (Click here) departing from the docks in either Puxi or Pudong.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14