History of the Astor House Hotel (Shanghai) since 1958

The Astor House Hotel (Chinese: 礼查饭店; pinyin: Lǐchá fàndiàn), also known as the Pujiang Hotel (浦江饭店; Pǔjiāng Fàndiàn), is an historic landmark hotel on the northern Bund in Shanghai, China. It is the successor to the earlier Richards' Hotel and Restaurant.

The story of the Hotel provides a revealing insight into the history of China itself. According to Rob Gifford, "The Astor House Hotel has witnessed the whole sweep of China's emergence into the modern world, from English opium running in the 1840s through the tea dances of polite society in the 1920s and to the excesses of Maoist China in the 1960s." [1]

Shanghai Government (1954-1988)

On 19 April 1954 the Astor House Hotel, which was owned by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd., was confiscated and control of the hotel passed to the Land and House Bureau of the Shanghai people's government.[2] On 25 June 1958 the hotel was incorporated into the Shanghai Institution Business Administrative bureau. Prior to the Hotel's re-opening as the Pujiang Hotel in 1959, "the building had been used by a tea and textile trading company as offices and dormitories, as well as by the Chinese Navy."[3]

On 27 May 1959, the name of the Hotel was changed from the Astor House Hotel to the Pujiang Hotel (浦江饭店),[4] and the hotel was permitted to receive both foreigners and overseas Chinese guests. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), the Hotel declined substantially, with the dining room on the top floor being changed beyond all recognition.

During this period, the Hotel became the first hotel in China to offer hostel beds.[5] In the 1980s and 1990s, the Hotel "became the city's premiere destination for independent travellers seeking dormitory accommodation."[6] One 1983 guide described the Hotel as "slightly run-down",[7] while a 1986 guide warned: "Despite its exceptional location near the Bund, ... the Pujiang is recommended only to travelers well prepared for 'roughing it'".[8] Pamela Yatsko, who stayed at the Pujiang Hotel in 1986, described it as "a dilapidated western architectural relic catering to penny-pinching backpackers like myself, melted seamlessly into this somber skyline, making it barely distinguishable from a distance....As for the Astor House Hotel's spacious rooms, the renamed hotel rented me a cot in one that had been converted into a dorm room fitting probably 30 beds....The clerk charged me the equivalent of US$8 a night for the cot."[9]

Shanghai Hengshan Mountain Group (1988 to today)

In 1988 the Pujiang Hotel was incorporated into another government-controlled entity, the Shanghai Hengshan Mountain Group (上海衡山集).[10]

Nadir (1988–2002)

At that time, one assessment indicated: "Today the Pujiang is run down and can get cold and clammy in winter - otherwise its nice."[11] At the end of 1989, the Pujiang was "Shanghai's official backpackers' hangout," with at least eight dormitories accommodating twenty people in each.[12] Accommodation in "the cheap if austere dormitory rooms",[13] was inexpensive. In 1989, a bed in the dormitories was 17 renminbi, including breakfast,[14] while four years later it had only increased to 20 renminbi per night, while a private room was 80.[15] At the end of 1992, the then Pujiang Hotel was described negatively: "Until recently, the Pujiang Hotel on Shanghai's waterfront was distinguished only by its sooty exterior, grimy windows and gloomy interior decor of dark wood paneling and peeling plaster. During the 1920s, when the building was known as the Astor House, it had been one of the most deluxe hotels in China. But when the People's Liberation Army marched into Shanghai in 1949, the fortunes of the Astor House fell into a spiral of decline, and its liveried doormen, elegantly appointed rooms and French restaurant with palm garden were soon no more than a distant and almost unimaginable memory."[16]

After being closed on 10 June 1949, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SHGSE), once the largest stock exchange in Asia,[17] re-opened on 19 December 1990, and was housed "temporarily" (until its relocation to Pudong in 1998)[18] in the former ballroom of the Astor House Hotel[19] in the west wing of the hotel, while "the east wing of the building still functioned as a state-run hotel."[20] The main aim of the Exchange was "to sell state securities, but a few other stocks (already being traded less formally) were also listed. The "transaction hall" was equipped with modern computers, several dozen small rooms for bargaining, and electronic transmission of prices "to 47 transaction centers around the city." Initially only eight stocks and 22 bonds were listed.[21]

In 1998 the Pujiang became the first Shanghai member of the International Youth Hostel Federation.[3] By 1998, "its 80 [private] rooms cost $40 to $60" per night.[22] Prior to its restoration, the Pujiang Hotel seemed to have reached its nadir, being described as "an inexpensive, somewhat grotty backpackers' favorite"[23] and "a dive for young budget travelers. Only the ballroom still shows signs of life."[24] A 1999 foreign guest elaborates: "My room turned out to be located on a floor way up in the Gods that must have been the former servants' quarters. The lift and grand staircase ended at the fifth floor below it and from there you ascended a set of dark, steep stairs to the attic. I imagined the ghosts of weary maid-servants trudging up these stairs late at night.... The polished wooden boards creaked and shook when anyone walked, or thundered, down the passage past my door.... One drawback to living in the attic was that the bathroom I had to use was three flights of stairs down on the third floor. The bathroom, in an annexe off the side of the building, was a dingy old square room covered all over in white tiles and with drainage holes in the floor that made it look like a gas chamber. The floor sloped away a good four inches as though the annexe was sliding down the outer wall. It felt as though I was still on the ship. Ancient pipes ran down the walls to two antique taps that spouted a solid jet of water which, without the refinement of a shower rose, pelted you from an overhead pipe.[25] A local reporter indicated: "Situated in an inconspicuous corner near the Bund, the Pujiang Hotel, formerly the Astor House Hotel, seems to have lost its bygone glory. The low-rise building has been eroded to be dated in colour, which was submerged among the eminent architecture of the Bund. Few members of the city's younger generation are even aware that the hotel exists, let alone that it is considered the father of the city's luxury hotels.[26]

Renaissance (2002 onwards)

According to Mark O'Neill, in 1995 the Hotel faced destruction, as "much of the furniture and interior decoration was destroyed or stolen during the Cultural Revolution, while insects had eaten a large part of the wood. Some parties have proposed demolishing it and putting a modern, five-star hotel on the site. Hengshan established a committee of scholars and experts which concluded that the hotel should be saved."[27] Once Wu Huaixiang (吴怀祥), president of the state-owned Hengshan Group, discovered its historical significance, he convinced the Group to retain the building and gradually restore it to its former glory. Wu explained the reasoning behind renovation rather than demolition: "If the hotel is demolished during my watch, I would be judged as a criminal in history. We could build a modern hotel anywhere but the Astor House is only in one place."[28] The Shanghai Zhuzong Group Architectural and Interior Design Co. Ltd., which had also renovated the nearby Broadway Mansions, was chosen to undertake the renovation work.[29] In 2002 the first phase of renovation was completed, and cost about 7 million renminbi to refurbish the 35 VIP rooms.[30] Even after some initial renovation in 2002, it was apparent to a British reporter in 2004 that the Astor House required additional changes: "Now, a bit down on its luck, it had to make do with me and other budget travellers. Inside the atmosphere of faded decadence persisted. The "hairdressers" at the end of the corridor seemed a bit too keen to promote their "special room massage". The request for a haircut left them totally baffled, which could have explained Einstein's crazy hairdo in the portrait in the lobby."[31] About this time the Hotel was again renamed the Astor House Hotel in English, while continuing to be the Pujiang Hotel (浦江饭店) in the Chinese language.[32]

In November 2003 Wu Huaixiang indicated the Hengshan Group was looking for an overseas investor to pay part of the 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million) needed to "renovate and manage the property and turn it into the Raffles of Shanghai."[33] Wu indicated: "Our aim is to turn it into a classic five-star hotel, like the Raffles in Singapore. We want the investor to pay a leasing fee and provide some of the money for renovation. That we can negotiate." The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Group, who had owned the Astor House until its confiscation in 1952, was uninterested in buying back Astor House, as it had plans to construct a Peninsular Hotel on the nearby site of the former British Consulate.

During the renovations several significant discoveries were made in 2004: "Seven century-old, white marble clapboards embossed with carvings of the Egyptian Sphinx were recently found in a hotel storage room that has been sealed for decades. The storage room at the Shanghai Astor House Hotel also contained several other century-old utensils, including an American hurricane lamp, an English ammeter, four blades of an American electric fan, and 37 white marble candle holders".[34] According to Li Hao, a manager at the Hotel, "The antiques will first be appraised, then be repaired, and finally be put in their former places or exhibited to the public. ... We'll relocate them to where they were, providing them a chance to function again as before."[35] Jasper Becker reported later in 2004, soon after the most recent renovation: "The oak-panelled walls and Ionic marble columns of the Astor Hotel's reception hall lend it a grandeur that war and revolution have not altered since Bertrand Russell and Bernard Shaw succumbed to Shanghai's splendid decadence.[36]

In May 2006 the Hotel was described: "From the outside, the hotel looks like Harrods; inside is a marble-floored reception dimly lit by a huge chandelier. The air of faded grandeur is enhanced by the fact that previous guests have included Einstein and Charlie Chaplin. Those boys may or may not have received friendlier service than we did, but the room size and decor more than made up for it."[37] Frommer's travel guide described the refurbished Astor House Hotel: "The brick-enclosed inner courtyard on the third floor now leads to rooms that have been refurbished and stripped down to accentuate the building's original highlights (high ceilings, carved moldings, and wooden floors). Beds are firm and comfortable, bathrooms large and clean, and there are even little flourishes like old-fashioned dial telephones.[38] In 2006 the Morning Shanghai restaurant opened at the Astor House: "On entering the building there is the vaulting red-brick ceiling, a European-style dome and impressive chandelier. The pillars in the lobby are replicas of the originals, and the antiques by the stairs recall times long past. Morning Shanghai's attention to the authenticity of its dishes and the general ambiance makes it suitable for those more advanced in years to enjoy the dining experience and reminisce."[39]

According to Tourism Review magazine in late 2008: "In recent years through intensive restoration the hotel got a completely new look. Today, it is a unique combination of old Victorian-style design and modern facilities. It contains 116 various types of rooms, including deluxe, standard, and executive and some 4-bed rooms. Each room is well decorated while some of them in which celebrities once stayed, are taken as historic spots with photos hanging on the wall to show guests.[40] Today there is "an eccentric style to the place. And how can you not love a hotel that makes its male staff dress in spats, kilts and black tailcoats?...With its thick lacquered walls, high ceilings, wooden floorboards and winding corridors, it has a feel that's somewhere between a Victorian asylum and an English boarding school".[41] In July 2009, the Hotel was described as "the tactfully-refurbished Astor House."[42]

Plans

In February 2006 the Shanghai Municipal Council announced plans for significant renovation in the area surrounding the Astor House Hotel. According to an article by Mark O'Neill, "When well-heeled visitors arrive in Shanghai in 2009 and want to stay in a period hotel on the Bund, they will be able to choose between two properties of the Kadoorie family. One will be the new Peninsula Hotel due for completion that year and the other the Pujiang, now state-owned but which belonged to the Kadoories before 1949 and is being refurbished in the style of the early 1900s. The properties are part of an ambitious multibillion-dollar project to turn the Bund from a street of rundown commercial buildings into a Chinese Ginza or Fifth Avenue, with upmarket hotels, restaurants, brand-name stores and expensive apartments. The city government wants to complete the transformation ahead of the World Expo in 2010, when it will show to the world what it has achieved in the 20 years since its resurrection began in 1990, after the decay and neglect during the first four decades of communist rule." As part of the extensive renovations in the vicinity of the Astor House Hotel in preparation for the 2010 World Expo to be held in Shanghai from May 2010, The Daily Telegraph predicted in February 2008: "Thirty of the buildings have protected status, while the renovation of the [Waibaidu] bridge will turn attention to the Astor House Hotel and Shanghai Mansions, Art Deco haunts of the city's pre-war glitterati....The Astor House Hotel is one of the city's neglected treasures and a fair bet will be that it will be restored to it former glory and, sadly, the prices will zoom up to reflect this. A price worth paying for the Astor is part of the history of Shanghai."[43]

References

  1. ↑ Rob Gifford, China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power (Random House, 2007):4.
  2. ↑ "Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd.," Far Eastern Economic Review 18 (1955):344.
  3. 1 2 Hibbard, Bund, 222.
  4. ↑ Harpruder; http://www.rickshaw.org/way_we_remember_it.htm
  5. ↑ Megan Shank, "The Astor House Hotel", Megan Shank dot com (for the forthcoming “To Shanghai with Love” travel guide); http://www.meganshank.com/blog/the-astor-house-hotel/ See also: Crystyl Mo, ed., To Shanghai With Love: A Travel Guide for the Connoisseur (ThingsAsian Press); http://www.thingsasianpress.com/tawl.htm
  6. ↑ Hibbard, Bund, 222.
  7. ↑ Jill Hunt et al., Shanghai, rev.ed. (China Guide Series, 1983):24.
  8. ↑ Fredric M. Kaplan, Julian M. Sobin, and Arne J. De Keijzer, eds., The China Guidebook, 7th ed. (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1986):551.
  9. ↑ Pamela Yatsko, New Shanghai: The Rocky Rebirth of China's Legendary City (Wiley, 2006):2.
  10. ↑ Hibbard says it was in 1994. See Hibbard, Bund, 222.
  11. ↑ Alan Samagalski, Robert Strauss, and Michael Buckley, eds. China: A Travel Survival Kit, 2nd ed. (Lonely Planet Publications, 1988):353.
  12. ↑ Jim Ford, Don't Worry, Be Happy: Beijing to Bombay with a Backpack (Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2006):108, 109.
  13. ↑ Ellen Hertz, The Trading Crowd: An Ethnography of the Shanghai Stock Market (Cambridge University Press, 1998):33.
  14. ↑ Laurie Fullerton and Tony Wheeler, eds., North-East Asia on a Shoestring, 2nd ed. (Lonely Planet Publications, 1989):51.
  15. ↑ Bruno Gmünder, ed., Spartacus, 1993-1994: International Gay Guide, 22nd ed. (Bruno Gmünder, 1993):117.
  16. ↑ Orville Schell and Todd Lappin, "China Plays the Market: Capitalist Leap", The Nation (14 December 1992).
  17. ↑ Stephen Paul Green, The Development of China's Stockmarket, 1984-2002: Equity Politics and Market Institutions (Routledge, 2003):8.
  18. ↑ Damian Harper, Christopher Pitts, and Bradley Mayhew, eds., Shanghai, 3rd ed. (Lonely Planet, 2006):104.
  19. ↑ "Shanghai" The Economist 333 (1994):40; Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, The Securities Journal 9-12 (1990):25; William Arthur Thomas, Western Capitalism in China: A History of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (Ashgate, 2001):70.
  20. ↑ Hertz, 33.
  21. ↑ Lynn T. White, Unstately Power. Vol. 1: Local Causes of China's Economic Reforms (M.E. Sharpe, 1998):325.
  22. ↑ Seth Faison, "What's Doing in Shanghai", The New York Times (19 April 1998); http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/19/travel/what-s-doing-in-shanghai.html?scp=88&sq=Shanghai%20Astor%20House&st=cse&pagewanted=2
  23. ↑ Jen Lin-Liu et al., eds., Frommer's China, 2nd ed. (John Wiley and Sons, 2006):428.
  24. ↑ Ian Buruma, "China: New York ... Or Singapore? The 21st Century Starts Here." The New York Times (18 February 1996); http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/18/magazine/china-new-york-or-singapore-the-21st-century-starts-here.html?scp=31&sq=Shanghai%20Astor%20House&st=cse&pagewanted=3
  25. ↑ Lydia Laube, Bound for Vietnam (Wakefield Press, 1999):25-26.
  26. ↑ Lu Chang, "Legendary Astor House Hotel," Shanghai Star (30 May 2002); http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2002/0530/di24-1.html
  27. ↑ Mark O'Neill, "Astor House wants to be Shanghai's Raffles", South China Morning Post; reprinted in Asia Africa Intelligence Wire (13 November 2003).
  28. ↑ Wu Huaixiang, quoted in O'Neill.
  29. ↑ Hibbard, Bund, 129.
  30. ↑ Graham Thompson, "Shanghai's Classic Hotels" (28 August 2008).; http://www.chinaexpat.com/blog/cde/2008/08/28/shanghais-classic-hotels.html
  31. ↑ Jim, "Shanghai Loon", The Guardian (19 February 2004); http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2004/feb/19/netjetters2004jim.netjetters?page=2
  32. ↑ Bradley Mayhew, Shanghai, 2nd ed. (Lonely Planet, 2004):160.
  33. ↑ Mark O'Neill, "Astor House wants to be Shanghai's Raffles", South China Morning Post; reprinted in Asia Africa Intelligence Wire (13 November 2003); http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-19359761_ITM
  34. ↑ According to Zuo Yan, the hotel office manager, who had worked at the Hotel since 1984. See "Hotel Uncovers Hidden Treasures" (7 May 2004); http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/shanghai/node17256/node18151/userobject22ai12719.html
  35. ↑ "Hidden Treasures".
  36. ↑ Jasper Becker, "The Other Side of Shanghai's Success Story" The Independent (11 August 2004); http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-other-side-of-shanghais-success-story-556175.html (accessed 13 April 2009).
  37. ↑ Imogen Fox, "Designer China", The Guardian (27 May 2006); http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/may/27/shanghai.china.shoppingtrips?gusrc=rss&feed=travel
  38. ↑ (accessed 13 April 2009).
  39. ↑ "The Morning of Shanghai", China Daily (22 November 2006); http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/citylife/2006-11/22/content_739679.htm
  40. ↑ "Astor House Hotel: The History Was Made Here" Tourism Review: Online Review (November 2008):9-10.
  41. ↑ Damian Harper and David Eimer, eds. Lonely Planet Shanghai: City Guide, 4th ed. (Lonely Planet, 2008):193.
  42. ↑ Niv Horesh, "Rambling Notes: Tracing 'Old Shanghai' at the Futuristic Heart of 'New China', The China Beat (5 July 2009); http://thechinabeat.blogspot.com/2009/05/rambling-notes-tracing-old-shanghai-at.html
  43. ↑ Richard Spencer, "China's Nod to Colonialism in Shanghai Revamp", Telegraph (18 February 2008); http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1579060/Chinas-nod-to-colonialism-in-Shanghai-revamp.html; "The Astor Hotel, Shanghai, Must be Restored", The China Economic Review (20 February 2008); http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/china-eye/2008_02_20/the-astor-hotel-shanghai-must-be-restored.html

Coordinates: 31°14′39″N 121°29′27″E / 31.2441°N 121.4908°E / 31.2441; 121.4908

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