Why you should experience the Peace Hotel on The Bund in Shanghai.
The Peace Hotel on The Bund is Shanghai’s grand dame — a living time capsule of Art Deco glamour, jazz-age indulgence, and East-meets-West mystique.
Rising like a green-capped jewel at the corner of Nanjing Road and the Huangpu River, the hotel has witnessed every metamorphosis of Shanghai — from opium port to cosmopolitan capital, from revolution to renaissance. Its copper pyramid roof gleams above the skyline like a memory gilded in time, while inside, marble floors, carved teak, and stained glass conjure the decadence of the 1930s. Once the crown jewel of the Far East, the Peace Hotel was where merchants, diplomats, and movie stars gathered to toast the city’s golden age — and where jazz never stopped playing, even when history turned turbulent. To stand in its lobby today is to feel Shanghai at full voltage — elegant, unpredictable, and impossibly alive.
What you didn’t know about the Peace Hotel.
The Peace Hotel, originally known as the Cathay Hotel, was built in 1929 by Sir Victor Sassoon, a British-Iraqi entrepreneur and one of Shanghai’s most colorful personalities.
Designed in striking Art Deco style by the architectural firm Palmer & Turner, it was Asia’s first skyscraper hotel, towering 77 meters above The Bund at a time when neon and modernity defined Shanghai’s identity. Its distinctive green pyramidal roof, clad in oxidized copper, became the city’s most recognizable landmark. The hotel featured revolutionary luxuries for its time — in-room telephones, marble baths, private safes, and an air-conditioning system decades ahead of its peers. But beyond its opulence, the Cathay was a stage for intrigue and indulgence: it hosted Charlie Chaplin, Noël Coward, and Marlene Dietrich, as well as diplomats, spies, and socialites who turned its jazz bar into Shanghai’s unofficial embassy of excess. After 1949, it was nationalized and renamed the Peace Hotel, symbolizing a new era of unity under the People’s Republic. During its major restoration in 2010, much of its original splendor was meticulously revived — from the Lalique glass chandeliers to the polished teak floors. Today, managed by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, it stands as both a functioning luxury hotel and a cultural monument, embodying Shanghai’s talent for reinvention. Even its legendary Old Jazz Band, founded in the 1940s, still performs nightly — all original members now octogenarians, each note a living echo of the city’s past.
How to fold the Peace Hotel into your trip.
The Peace Hotel is not just a place to stay — it’s a destination in itself, where history, music, and architecture intertwine in cinematic harmony.
Begin your visit by approaching from The Bund’s Waitan Promenade, allowing the building’s green roof and limestone façade to come into view framed by the skyline. Step into the lobby, where a grand stained-glass skylight diffuses golden light across marble floors and Art Deco detailing. Even if you’re not a guest, stop at the Jasmine Lounge for afternoon tea or a quiet cocktail surrounded by the hum of nostalgia. As evening falls, ascend to the Peace Hall for a private event or head to the Jazz Bar, where the legendary Old Jazz Band plays each night — an experience that bridges nearly a century of Shanghai’s soundscape. For the best vantage of the hotel’s exterior, cross Zhongshan Road to the Bund promenade at sunset; from there, the Peace Hotel glows like a crown against the river’s reflection. Allocate 60–90 minutes to linger here — longer if you plan to dine or attend a performance. Accessible via East Nanjing Road Station (Line 2), the Peace Hotel marks the perfect starting or ending point for a night on The Bund. To stand in its shadow is to realize that some places never truly age — they simply keep playing the same song, a little softer, a little wiser, as the city keeps dancing on.
Hear it from the Foresyte community.
“Morning Bund is soft jazz, evening is a rave. You come back twice just to see which personality you vibe with more. Spoiler: both. You’re not that strong.”
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