Shanghai to Beijing Landmark Hotels Tell a Tale of Two Cities
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VOL. 11 NO. 1 Scottsdale: The New Wild West Sail Away to Bermuda Nostalgic Nairobi Shanghai to Beijing Landmark hotels tell a tale of two cities Fairmont Unforgettable. Since 1907. SHANGHAI TO BEIJING Two iconic hotels and the strong founding figures behind them tell a story of China past and present. By Natasha Mekhail FAIRMONT MAGAZINE 40 FAIRMONT MAGAZINE 41 EAST MEETS WEST LUCKY NUMBERS The choice of digits counts at Fairmont Peace Hotel. East – 8 The Mandarin word for “eight” is similar to that of “prosper” and is therefore aus- picious. Find it in the octagonal n the 1920s, Shanghai real estate tycoon apartment, unaware of the vicissitudes ahead. In 1937, shape of tables and the stained- Victor Sassoon had a dream to create “the guests watched from the rooftop as Shanghai fell to the glass lobby ceiling. The Sassoon most beautiful hotel in the Far East.” He Japanese. Within a decade, the occupation and ensuing Presidential Suite is #888. succeeded in 1929 when the unrest would push the founder from the city West – 20 Sassoon was a Cathay Hotel opened its he loved. After the Cultural Revolution, the betting man and thought this I doors at 20 the Bund, one of hotel served as offices for the newly formed number lucky. He used his the most commanding addresses on Shang- People’s Republic, and was later renamed influence to ensure the hotel hai’s most important financial corridor. A Peace Hotel. “Every aspect of modern Chi- was numbered 20 on the three model of Art Deco architecture and the tallest nese history took place here,” summarizes streets it faces: the Bund, building in the city at the time, it became an general manager George Wee. So when the Nanjing Road and Dianchi Road. international landmark, visited by dignitaries hotel emerged in 2010 as Fairmont Peace and celebrities. Imagine Marlene Dietrich Hotel, following a three-year renovation breezing into the Cathay Ballroom, Noël Coward pen- timed to welcome the world for Expo, it marked yet ning Private Lives in his suite and Charlie Chaplin another turning point. Restored to its former splendor, greeting press on the stairs. All the while Sassoon pre- Fairmont Peace Hotel once again fulfills its promise of sided over his glittering empire from his 10th-floor superlative beauty on Shanghai’s storied landscape. THE TREATMENT WILLOW STREAM WISDOM SHANGHAI Duration: 90 minutes Where: Fairmont Peace Hotel’s Willow Stream Spa part one Service: An aromatic footbath followed by a full-body massage SASSOON’S SECRETS with a warm herbal pouch. Symbols throughout the hotel Benefits: The pouch’s heat give clues to the founder’s alleviates muscle tension, history and passions. allowing a deeper pressure massage. Its herbal ingredients 01. Whippets were Sassoon’s favorite dogs. Find the miniature greyhounds in a number of stylized reliefs, such as (wormwood, ginger, club moss, over doorways and in floor mosaics.02. The hotel’s triangular floorplan represents a “V” for “Victor,” while Sassoon’s balsam and Chinese elder) other property, the Metropole, forms an “S” – his literal stamp on the city. 03. Tudor roses on the ceiling of Sassoon’s stimulate blood circulation and suite speak to his reverence for England, where he was educated. 04. The Nine Nations Suites represent countries lull the recipient into a profound : XAVIER GIRARD-LACHAÎNE (ALL EXCEPT BUND); ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN CÔTÉ MARTIN ILLUSTRATION: BUND); EXCEPT (ALL GIRARD-LACHAÎNE : XAVIER to which Sassoon had a deep connection, including India, where he lived before moving to China. state of relaxation. PHOTOS FAIRMONT MAGAZINE 43 SHANGHAI A SUITE SURPRISE LEGENDARY Match each famous guest with the Nine Nations Suite where they stayed. LIBATIONS While researching Shanghai Grand, writer Taras Grescoe discovered Sassoon’s own cocktail recipes written into his journals. Four of these drinks 01 02 03 04 Marlene Dietrich Charlie Chaplin Guglielmo Marconi Muhammad Ali are now on the Jazz Bar menu. 01 PUSS MOTH, 1931 Gin, White Rum, Cointreau, Lemon Juice – Named for the NOT TO MISS A B C D de Havilland aircraft. OLD JAZZ BAND Indian Suite German Suite Chinese Suite Italian Suite The spirit of the jazz age lives on throughout Fairmont Peace Hotel, but nowhere more so than in the cocktail bar where the Old Jazz Band 04–C / 03–D / 02–A / 01–B performs nightly. The band’s name is not just a nod to the 1920s and ’30s style of tunes they play, it’s also a tribute to their collective life experience. ACTIVITY With an average age of 80 and the eldest member pushing 95, the senior sextet has made the Guinness Book of World Records. TAI CHI LESSON HIGH LOW The fluid movements associated with tai chi are based on the spiraling motion of the silkworm as it wraps itself SHANGHAI SPECIALTIES in its cocoon: too fast and the silk breaks; too slow and it tangles. To its practitioners, tai chi is exercise and meditation rolled into one. The slow repetitive work stimulates circulation and generates body heat, while the concentration involved provides mental calmness and clarity. Guests can sign up for a lesson on the Peace Hotel OUTING rooftop with tai chi master Liu Ai Hua. 02 PRESERVATION SOCIETY CONTE VERDE, 1934 Gin, Cointreau, Dry Vermouth, Crème de Menthe, Lemon Juice – Inspired by the Italian ocean liner ESSENTIAL CULTURE LESSON aboard which Sassoon hosted a READING CHINESE DOUBLE MEANINGS Venetian masquerade. PRIVATE LIVES When used in decoration, these auspicious BY NOËL COWARD homophones elicit cosmic favor. While recovering from a bout of the flu at the Cathay Hotel, the English playwright wrote his classic comedy about a hotel. OLD TOWN XIN TIAN DI HOTEL SHANGHAI In this beautifully restored Combining Chinese and Western BY VICKI BAUM section of the ancient walled city, details, the shikumen style of stone Xiao long bao Cong you ban mian Set at the hotel on August 14, 1937, 03 VASE FISH BAT a zigzagging bridge connects architecture was popular with No Shanghai street-food At Fairmont Peace Hotel’s Dragon the novel follows nine people at the CHAMPION MARTINI, 1933 stilted buildings that appear to wealthy Chinese families in the late experience is complete without Phoenix restaurant, this simple, onset of the Sino-Japanese War. Gin, Dry Vermouth, Bitters – float over a lake. Next to it lies 1800s. A surviving pocket of this this dumpling stuffed with traditional green-onion noodle Hotel staff say this was the Yu Garden, a Ming-era residence housing style remains in Xin Tian Di, meat and hot soup. The larger dish goes haute with a hint of SHANGHAI GRAND celebratory cocktail served that offers a glimpse into how the now occupied by trendy boutiques tang bao contain only soup, truffle oil and crispy-fried scallions BY TARAS GRESCOE when Sassoon’s horses won dynastic elite live. and restaurants. which can be sipped from a straw. lending texture. Told through real letters, this “PEACE” “SURPLUS” “FORTUNE” at the track. non-fiction account reveals the often Pronounced píng. Pronounced yú. At the Pronounced fú. Not only passionate relationship between Victor A vase in your home Chinese New Year meal, do these words share a 04 1929 1937 1949 1956 2007 2010 Sassoon, New Yorker journalist Emily Hahn or an archway in the it’s good luck to leave sound, but so do the words SAN REMO, 1934 and Chinese poet Zau Sinmay. form of a vase wards some fish uneaten. for “turn over” and “come.” Brandy, Orange Curaçao, Orange HISTORY off evil and encourages What remains signals As the bat hangs upside Juice – Named for Sanremo, a UNFOLDS The Cathay Guests watch from the The hotel is used as government offices A conference for world peace Closed for Reopened Hotel opens rooftop as the Japanese during the early formation of the convenes in China and the restoration and as Fairmont peace and tranquility abundance for the down, so too will good town on the Italian Riviera where invade Shanghai People’s Republic of China hotel reopens as Peace Hotel renovation Peace Hotel GUESTS) (FAMOUS ALAMY DESIGN DETAILS); COCKTAILS, FOOD, STREET (OUTING, GIRARD-LACHAÎNE : XAVIER within. coming year. fortune come. Sassoon summered. PHOTOS FAIRMONT MAGAZINE 44 FAIRMONT MAGAZINE 45 SHANGHAI BEIJING “Countless words count less than the silent balance between yin and yang.” - Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching : XAVIER GIRARD-LACHAÎNE : XAVIER PHOTOS AC T I V I T Y CYCLE TOURS Bicycles arrived in China in the 1890s and became a way of life. Cycling is ideal for sightseeing, allowing easy navigation of both the city’s wide streets and its narrow hutongs. Guests of Fairmont Beijing can borrow BMW bikes and follow one of these two routes planned by the hotel’s chief concierge. ith its 25-story twin towers inner sanctum, and its gold color was drawn from the BEIJING connected by a soaring sky imperial hue. The man behind this desire to pay hom- bridge and a facade age both to where China is going and part two of thousands of where it has come from is the hotel’s owner, reflective rose-gold Chanchai Ruayrungruang. The founder of Hutong Route (20.1 km) W panels, Fairmont multinational multi-industry conglomer- Hutongs are networks of alleys Beijing stands out in Chaoyang as a beacon ate Reignwood Group, whose offices that follow the lines of ancient of modernity. Not only does the building occupy the west tower, is a passionate col- courtyard residences. Today overlook the 21st-century business district lector of everything from antiquities to the fewer than 1,000 remain in around it, it also faces the 15th-century for- latest technological finds.