Shanghai · Cathay Hotel, 1929
The Peace Hotel's story starts before its doors opened
Sir Victor Sassoon opened Shanghai's Cathay Hotel, now the Peace Hotel, in 1929. His family's earlier fortune was built partly on selling opium to China.
What is said in this reel
This hotel's real story starts before its doors opened. Sir Victor Sassoon opened Shanghai's Cafe Hotel in 1929. Victor turned to Shanghai property and lived in the penthouse above his guests, right beneath that green roof. Today, these doors welcome you to the Peace Hotel. But his family's earlier fortune built partly on selling Indian opium to China. Same glamour. A different story underneath.
Credits and sources
- Footage: YouTube video "How the Rich Stay in China! $2000/Night Shanghai Luxury" by Dany Dev (2024)
- Entrance photograph: supplied to Antropeo (photographer not recorded)
- "VS 02" (portrait of Victor Sassoon) by דוד טאוב, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Tcitp d235 offices of e d sassoon and co" from Twentieth Century Impressions by Arnold Wright (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- Sources: The Jewish Museum, The Sassoons exhibition guide; Fairmont Peace Hotel history
- Music: Lost Frontier by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
- Narration: AI-generated voice.
