Shanghai’s historic Astor House
hotels near the Bund is set to get a makeover. Besides renovation and
refurbishing, the century-old hotel that once housed big names like
physicist Albert Einstein, actor Charlie Chaplin and writer Edgar Snow,
may be converted into a stock exchange museum though the exact details
about its future remain unclear.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange came into existence at the hotel in 1990.
Both the exchange and the hotel said the future plans had not yet been worked out, but the hotel confirmed that it would stop receiving
guests and visitors from next Monday.
The exchange said yesterday it may be restored, either partly or fully, into a museum — the first in the city — or may house both the
museum and the hotel.
Astor House has a unique place in Shanghai’s history — when it opened in 1846 it was the first Western hotel in China.
Nielsen Wen, director of sales and marketing of the hotel, told Shanghai Daily that the hotel’s famous banquet hall, cafe bar and all
the 116 rooms will be closed from January 1.
A room reservation hotline also confirmed that the hotel was to undergo renovations and that rooms were available only till the end of
this month.
Astor House, which was previously known as Richard’s Hotel, was founded by the Richard family in 1846 along the Bund near Jinling Road
E. It later moved to its current location on Huangpu Road near the
Waibaidu Bridge in 1857.
Rebuilt in 1912 in a neo-classical Baroque style, the Astor House was one of the most lavish hotels in the city — and in the Far East — in
the early 20th century. It was listed by the city government as a
heritage architecture in 1999.The hotel hosted Einstein, who stayed in
Room 304 in 1922, former US President Ulysses S. Grant in Room 410 in
1897, Chaplin in Room 404 in 1931 and 1936, and Snow, the author of “Red
Star over China,” in Room 303 in 1931.
The rooms have been well-preserved and still welcoming guests. Room 304 in which Einstein stayed costs around 2,000 yuan (US$305.9) per
night now. All the original furnishings of nearly a century ago in the
room remain intact.
As news of its closure spread, locals flocked to the site.
“It’s really a pity that such a historic hotel is going to close. It will become a museum, and we may not be able to stay there anymore,” an
accountant surnamed Xie said. Xie went to the hotel to take some “final
photos” after hearing about its planned closure.
“I feel so lucky to be among the last batch of customers living in the hotel,” said Bryan from New Zealand, who was staying in the hotel.
