Peace Hotel

The Peace Hotel, in Shanghai

The Peace Hotel, He Ping Fan Dian, is one of the most famous symbols of Shanghai, at the corner of the Bund and the Nanjing Road, recognisable by its green copper spire and its Art Deco façade. The Shanghai audio-guided tour stops here to evoke this palace of the end of the 1920s, former Cathay Hotel, embodiment of the elegance of cosmopolitan Shanghai.

The Art Deco palace of the Shanghai of the 1930s

At the corner of the Bund and the Nanjing Road stands one of the most famous symbols of Shanghai: the Peace Hotel, He Ping Fan Dian. With its green copper spire and its Art Deco granite façade, it embodies on its own the elegance and the modernity of the Shanghai of the 1930s. Built between 1926 and 1929 by Sir Victor Sassoon, heir of a wealthy Sephardic family originally from Baghdad, the hotel was at the time called the Cathay Hotel. Sassoon wanted to create the finest establishment of Asia, and he succeeded: with its thirteen floors and its height of more than seventy metres, it was then the tallest skyscraper of the Far East. Inside, the luxury was unprecedented; all the rooms were air-conditioned, equipped with a telephone and decorated according to themes inspired by different countries. The greatest personalities of the world stayed there, and the lobby, the lounges and the famous bar welcomed the cosmopolitan elite of the town, in the refined and slightly wild atmosphere of what was called the Paris of the Orient. Today restored and still in activity, the Peace Hotel keeps its original decor and its famous jazz orchestra, perpetuating the memory of the golden age of Shanghai. Standing proudly on the Bund for nearly a century, it is one of its most recognisable silhouettes. A historic palace and an Art Deco icon, the Peace Hotel is a fine stop of the discovery of Shanghai.

What to see

You admire, at the corner of the Bund and the Nanjing Road, the famous palace with the green copper spire and the Art Deco granite façade, built from 1926 to 1929 by Sir Victor Sassoon under the name of Cathay Hotel, then the tallest skyscraper of the Far East and the most luxurious of Asia; still in activity, it keeps its original decor and its jazz orchestra. The Peace Hotel is an icon of the Bund. It is a fine stop, to be explored on foot.

Practical information

The Peace Hotel lies at the corner of the Bund and the Nanjing Road, in the Huangpu district, reachable on foot and by metro. It is a luxury hotel in activity whose Art Deco façade you admire from the Bund; the lobby and the bar can be visited according to the conditions of the establishment, which vary. You discover it during a walk on the Bund.

What is the history of the Peace Hotel of Shanghai?

Built from 1926 to 1929 by Sir Victor Sassoon under the name of Cathay Hotel, this Art Deco palace with the green copper spire was, with its thirteen floors, the tallest skyscraper of the Far East and the most luxurious of Asia, frequented by the cosmopolitan elite of the Paris of the Orient; still in activity, restored, it keeps its original decor and its famous jazz orchestra.

Where is the Peace Hotel in Shanghai?

At the corner of the Bund and the Nanjing Road, in the Huangpu district, in Shanghai, in China.