Peace Shanghai – Peace Hotel In The Prime Downtown Shanghai

peace shanghai

The Peace Hotel is a hotel on The Bund in Shanghai, China which overlooks the Huangpu River. The hotel today operates as two separate businesses. The North Building, built as Sassoon House, originally housed the Cathay Hotel and is today the Fairmont Shanghai Hotel. The South Building was built as the Palace Hotel and is today the Swatch Art Peace Shanghai Hotel .

The larger North Building at Number 20, The Bund, is called Sassoon House. It was built by Sir Victor Sassoon, of the famous Sassoon family who dominated Shanghai business and real estate in the early 20th century. Sassoon House was the first high rise building built by Victor Sassoon. It occupied 4617 square metres, with a floor space of 36,317 square metres. The total height is 77 metres. Most of the building features granite facing, with the ninth floor and the roof surfaced with terracotta. The building features an “A” shaped cross section. Before 1949, the ground floor space facing the Bund was leased to two banks. The rest of the ground floor featured a shopping arcade. Sassoon’s companies and subsidiaries had their offices in the fourth floor. The fifth to seventh floors housed the Cathay Hotel, with rooms decorated in exotic international themes. The tenth floor was Victor Sassoon’s private apartments. Within the pyramidal roof was the large dining hall.

Before 1949, the Cathay Hotel was regarded as the most prestigious hotel in Shanghai. Most international envoys visiting Shanghai would stay in the hotel. In 1956 it resumed trading as a hotel under the name Peace Shanghai Hotel. In 1992 the Peace Hotel was listed as one of the famous hotels of the world by the World Hotel Association.

Separated from the North Building by busy Nanjing Road, the South Building was coanstructed as the Palace Hotel in 1908 on the site of the Central Hotel, which had been founded on the same site in the 1850s. When built, the six story hotel was the tallest building on Nanjing Road. The hotel occupies 2125 square meters, with a floor space of 11607 metres. The Peace Shanghai Hotel has around 120 guest rooms. It also featured two elevators, the first building to do so in Shanghai.

During World War II, the building was occupied by the Japanese army. In 1965 it resumed trading as a hotel as a wing of the Peace Hotel.

Peace Hotel is truly a fusion of ancient and modern, Eastern and Western.