There are some remarkable buildings in Shanghai that impressively represent the 1930s with the finest Art Deco and Art Nouveau. If you are looking for such treasures, you will find it on Maoming Road between Huaihai Road and Changle Road. There you will find hotels that were built in this style in the 1930s. You can get there by Subway Line 10 to South Shaanxi Road, Exit 3. Another focal point is on Nanjing Road between the Shanghai History Museum and People's Square across from People's Park, accessible via the People's Square Metro Station, exits 8, 9, 10 or 11.
Jin Jiang Hotel and Garden Hotel on Maoming Road In 1929 the Jinjiang Hotel was built, an Art Deco building with a rather imposing entrance, which welcomed over 400 heads of state and government. Today's hotel consists of several complexes, a particularly impressive part is the Grosvenor House.
Right next door is the Jun Ling Building, whose conception is almost expressionistic with its brick construction and the angled, faceted and crystal-like arrangement of the building parts, which, apart from a few Art Deco ornaments, are simple and abstract in their basic shapes.
Another part of the Jinjiang Hotel, the Cathay Mansion, is located in this building complex, which is loosened up by green spaces. Its architecture with the stone crosses and the leaded windows looks neo-Gothic and Victorian.
Okura Garden Hotel
Across the street from Maoming Road is now the Okura Garden Hotel. It used to be the seat of the exclusive French club Cercle Sportif Francais. In 1926 the building was erected with neo-baroque elements. Inside, however, it is decorated with a mixture of Art Deco and Art Nouveau. Mosaics, stylized floral shapes and Art Deco lamps, faceted mirrors, geometric friezes give the room an impressive effect. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the magnificent ballroom with its colorful glass roof because a wedding was taking place there.
The building is in a park that used to be a sports field.
Cathay Cinema, Maoming Road and Wuhaihai Road A few meters further in the direction of Wuhaihai Road on the corner of Maoming Road is the Cathay Cinema, which is particularly impressive because of its exterior architecture and the entrance hall. The word "Cathay", nowadays mainly known by the Hong Kong airline "Cathay Pacific", is the name for China that Marco Polo used in his travelogue "Il Milione".
Grand Cinema and Park Hotel on Nanjing Road The Grand Cinema on Nanjing Road directly across from People's Park, like the Park Hotel next to it, was built by the Hungarian Lászlo Hudec. For a long time it was considered the best cinema in Asia. As with many buildings and interiors, you will also find the often used indirect lighting through stucco profiles and the use of shiny materials, be it chrome or black granite, brass and onyx in crystalline and geometric shapes.
The Paramount Located near the Jing'an Temple at 216 Yuyuan Road is Paramount, which opened in 1933 and was a nightclub and dance temple until 1949, which particularly symbolizes the decadent, cosmopolitan Shanghai of the 1930s. The building deteriorated during the Cultural Revolution. In 2001 a Taiwanese investor renovated it in the original style and reopened it as a club. Today there is a ballroom on the fourth floor that you can't just go into, but you bring your dance partner with you or rent one, women can also come alone and choose a dance partner for the evening. These female and male hostesses lead the guests pleasantly through the evening.
The Fairmont Peace Hotel The luxury hotel is designed in the finest Art Deco both inside and out. The building itself is the Sassoon Building, named after its builder Sir Victor Sassoon, a Jewish-Sephardic real estate mogul of Iraqi origin who had a real estate empire in Shanghai and was owned by the E.D. Sassoon & Co., who did their business in Bombay, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Originally it was called "Cathay Hotel", the term Cathay comes from Marco Polo's travel reports and was then the name for China. There is a small museum in the hotel that you can visit for free, it only has one room, but it shows some exquisite documents, china, silver, etc. It is definitely worth strolling through the impressive rooms on the ground floor and taking in the grandeur and luxury. Corridors, rooms, bars - it's a dream. While you enjoy the interior and stroll from corridor to corridor, porters with gloves open the doors and nod dignified as you walk through. You can't stop being amazed at the beauty and grandeur.
Incidentally, the hotel inspired the German writer Vicky Baum to write her novel "Hotel Shanghai", one of at least fifteen Shanghai novels in German literature, which German studies neglect because of its entertainment character. Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg were allegedly in the hotel for the filming of "Shanghai Express" - somehow the museum gives that impression.
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