The Peninsula Hong Kong
The history of "the finest hotel east of Suez"
Photographs: copyright Roundhouse Publications
(Asia) Ltd.
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The Hong Kong Peninsula is one of the world's
leading hotels. The 70-year old institution is known by its nickname: "The
Pen". When the hotel first welcomed the public, on December 11, 1928, it
was already a survivor. Construction work had begun on January 2, 1922. The
completion date was changed from 1924 to 1926. When the British rushed troops
to Hong Kong for possible military action against the Kuomintang, the Military
Authorities saw the Peninsula, with it's structural work complete, as an ideal
location for a temporary barracks, For the next 14 months, the British
occupied it. When the soldiers eventually moved out, repair teams moved in the
replace the flooring and all the bathtubs. |
The Peninsula, Hong Kong. |
The panorama view from the China Clipper. |
In the 1930s the Pen was named "the
finest hotel east of Suez". But for a long time, Hong Kong remained
in the shadow of the more cosmopolitan and prosperous Shanghai. The Pen
was and is run by the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited.
The 1937 bombing of Shanghai by the Japanese caused an
influx of 650,000 refugees in the next two years. With the onset of World
War II in September 1939, refugees began to look elsewhere for safe haven.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour and, later, Hong
Kong and Malaya. On Christmas 1941, the British signed the capitulation
document at the Peninsula. For two months, the Hong Kong Governor was
placed in Room 336 of the hotel, when he was imprisoned in Woosung, near
Shanghai.
The Japanese manager of The Hong Kong Hotel's barber
shop turned out to be a Japanese spy and a naval commander - taking
advantage of the informal atmosphere of haircuts and shaves to cull
valuable information about the status of British forces. |
The Japanese accepted defeat on August 14,
1945. Discussions between the Japanese and the British took place at the
hotel on September 3, 1945.
A new era began for Hong Kong's
"Grand Old Lady", as the Pen is also known today, when it was
de-requisitioned in June 1946. With the 1953 closing of The Hong Kong
Hotel, The Pen became the company's flagship, a status it holds today. The
rich and famous became its guests.
The Pen's postwar success is closely related to its
Swiss General Managers Felix Bieger and later Peter Gautschi. In the
1990s, a Philippe Starck-designed restaurant opened. Its name:
"Felix", as a tribute to the former General Manager. Rolf
Heiniger and Leo Gaddi are other Swiss names associated with the hotel's
success. The restaurant Gaddi's had opened in 1953.
In June 1990 work on a 30-storey tower of the Pen began.
It was completed in December 1994 and made the Pen a more lucrative
investment, without lowering its standards of excellency.
Source: The Peninsula: Portrait of a Grand Old Lady. Hong Kong,
Roundhouse Publications (Asia) LTD, 1997, 224 p.
Online
hotel reservations for The Peninsula Hong Kong.
Click
here for hotels of all categories in Hong Kong.
|
The Peninsula's Lobby. |
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