Restored Jazz Age "Mansion In The East" Opens Its Doors After Long Wait As new constructions continue to reshape its skyline, Shanghai is also in the midst of a restoration boom aimed at reclaiming parts of the city to their Jazz Age glory. Following recent renovation projects such as the Rockbund Art Museum and the 1933 Abattoir, today the famed Peace Hotel (originally built in 1929) finally had its soft re-opening. From the Wall Street Journal: Even as the rest of Shanghai was putting on the Ritz – and sprouting skyscrapers across the river – the Peace Hotel remained stuck in a time warp of dismal service and drab interior. Now, its restoration promises to make up for lost time. Closed since 2007, it is launching a soft opening this week as Fairmont Peace Hotel. It will feature 270 modernized guest rooms with advertised prices starting around $350, while nine “nation-suites” styled in Indian, American and British themes, plus a new tenth floor presidential suite, will be priced at multiples of that level. A new annex will feature a pool and spa. Fairmont, backed primarily by Qatar and Saudi owners, runs the hotels world-wide under the Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel nameplates, as well as New York’s Plaza and London’s Savoy. In Shanghai, the job is to restore hotel operation to the past glory. “It’s not all about the walls and the floors,” said the general manager, Kamal Naamani, who previously ran a Fairmont hotel in Dubai. Read the full article, which includes a great deal of information on Shanghai's larger Bund restoration project (completed shortly before the kickoff of the Shanghai World Expo) here. Fairmont Peace Hotel 20 Nanjing Road East Shanghai, China 200002