Hongkou ( ; formerly spelled Hongkew ) is a district of Shanghai , forming part of the northern urban core. It has a land area of 23.48 km (9.07 sq mi) and a population of 757,498 as of 2020. The district borders Yangpu to the east, Pudong to the southeast, Huangpu to the southwest, Jing'an to the west and Baoshan to the north.
110-695: It is the location of the Astor House Hotel , Broadway Mansions , Lu Xun Park , and Hongkou Football Stadium . It was once known as Shanghai's "Little Tokyo." Hongkou is home to the Shanghai International Studies University , the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics , and the 1933 Old Millfun . During the Tang dynasty , the area in modern Hongkou District may have been a beach included in
220-595: A winter garden . Mary Hall, who stayed at the Astor House in April 1914, described her experience: The Astor House, which since I was here last, seventeen years ago, had outgrown all recognition....I entered the spacious social hall flanked with cigar, sweets, scent and other stalls....[I]nside the hotel it was easy to imagine ones self in London or New York. The idea is soon dissipated when you find yourself following
330-837: A "first class hotel in all these words imply" and was listed in Moses King's Where to Stop.": A Guide to the Best Hotels of the World . After her husband's death, Ellen Jansen operated the Astor House. The Astor House remained in her control until 1 November 1900. By 1896 the Hotel was managed by Canadian-born Lewis M. Johnson, who was responsible for booking the first motion pictures to be shown in Shanghai on Saturday 22 May 1897 in Astor Hall. On 5 November 1897, China's first prom
440-570: A "serious crisis" confronted the shareholders of the Astor House Hotel Company. While praise for the renovations was almost universal, they strained severely the Hotel's finances. The Hotel's bank refused to issue the funds needed to pay interest to the debenture holders, forcing an extraordinary meeting with the trustees of the note holders. The interest was finally paid after mortgaging the Astor Garden (B.C. Lot 1744),
550-489: A "staunch Britisher" who had become a naturalised American citizen, a master mariner who had first gone to sea at age 14, formerly of the Royal Navy , a Royal Arch freemason , who "had been coming to Shanghai for twenty years", was appointed managing director, with responsibility for managing Central Stores' three Shanghai hotels, including the Astor House, with a salary of $ 900 a month, plus board and lodging. Morton
660-635: A Russian guest's wallet with its contents, spent a third of it on a car. That car became Shanghai's first taxi, and spawned the Johnson fleet, now known as the Qiangsheng taxi", which is "now ranked number-two by the number of taxis in the city behind Dazhong. The Shanghai government took over Qiangsheng after the Communists won the Chinese civil war in 1949". Despite an annual profit of $ 596,437 in
770-590: A century later, John B. Powell erroneously recounted the origins of the Hotel: "The Astor House Hotel ... had grown from a boarding house established originally by the skipper of some early American clipper , who left his ship at Shanghai. A string of sea captains followed the original as managers of the hotel. The very first public meeting of the British settlement was held in the newly opened Richards' Hotel on 22 December 1846. In August 1850 Richards advertised that
880-408: A city is largely given by the buildings that first catch the eye. The new Astor House Extension will greatly assist in bearing in upon the visitor that he is approaching no mean city. Favoured by its site, it stands out boldly and inspires a belief in the future of a city that can support such a huge caravanserai, in addition to others. The Shanghai resident regards it with equal admiration and also with
990-576: A crushing victory and allowed it to impose a one-sided treaty. The first working draft for articles of a treaty was prepared at the Foreign Office in London in February 1840. The Foreign Office was aware that preparing a treaty containing Chinese and English characters would need special consideration. Given the distance separating the countries, the parties realised that some flexibility and
1100-813: A departure from established procedure in preparing treaties might be required. The fundamental purpose of the treaty was to change the framework of foreign trade imposed by the Canton System , which had been in force since 1760. Under Article V, the treaty abolished the former monopoly of the Cohong and their Thirteen Factories in Canton. Four additional " treaty ports " opened for foreign trade alongside Canton ( Shameen Island from 1859 until 1943): Xiamen (or Amoy; until 1930), Fuzhou , Ningbo and Shanghai (until 1943), where foreign merchants were to be allowed to trade with anyone they wished. Britain also gained
1210-565: A formal hierarchy in its interactions with other states. Despite this stipulation, the treaty's contents featured entirely concessions from the Chinese side with no reciprocity of provisions on the British side - for instance, Britain received the right to establish consulates in treaty ports that held the right to an audience with local officials, an option denied to China should it have hypothetically wanted to send its own formal diplomatic missions to Britain. The one-sided nature of this treaty as
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#17327650501521320-610: A grill room. Despite the renovations, financial difficulties persisted that resulted in the trustees for the debenture holders foreclosing on the Hotel in August 1915. In September 1915, the trustees subsequently sold the Astor House Hotel Company Limited and all of its property and assets, including over 10 mow of land, to Central Stores Limited, owners of the Palace Hotel, for 705,000 taels. With
1430-571: A list of concessions, alongside the sovereignty ceded with the terms granting extraterritoriality and joint Sino-British determination of tariff, would earn the Nanking Treaty and similar settlements that followed the name, "unequal treaty," from Chinese nationalists in later centuries. Interestingly, Joanna Waley-Cohen writes that, at the time of its signing, the Qing did not regard the treaty as “of major significance.” According to Waley-Cohen,
1540-448: A man clad in bath-room slippers and shirt to the feet, the whiteness of which is relieved by a long black pigtail hanging down his back. He bows and smiles as he unlocks a door and shows you to your room, which is light and airy, with a bath-room attached. The dining-room was a gorgeous scene in the evening...The room is long, and the prevailing colours buff and white: down the centre are very handsome Chinese inlaid pillars on which, during
1650-412: A miniature portrait of Pottinger's wife, Pottinger wrote that Keying "placed [the miniature] on his head—which I am told is the highest token of respect and friendship—filled a glass of wine, held the picture in front of his face, muttered some words in a low voice, drank the wine, again placed the picture on his head and then sat down" to complete the ceremony of long-term amity between the two families and
1760-542: A polished teakwood bar, and a large billiard room. Farther up the grand staircase is the main dining hall, almost the whole length of the building with a gallery and verandah on the second floor and well lighted by a barreled ceiling of glass. On the Astor Road side is a handsome banqueting hall and reception rooms, both decorated in ivory and gold, and six private dining rooms. There were six service elevators, bedrooms with private sitting rooms, and luxury suites under
1870-667: A reading room for shipmasters had been established in his hotel. On 1 March 1856 his company was renamed "Richards & Co." and on 15 May 1856, while in New York on business, Richards' company was declared insolvent by decree of the British Consular Court in Shanghai, and all of his assets (including the Richards' Hotel) were assigned provisionally to his creditors , Britons William Herbert Vacher and Charles Wills. According to Shanghai historian Peter Hibbard,
1980-602: A seawall (捍海塘) near the East China Sea . In the early Ming dynasty , it became known as 黃埔口 (Huangpukou) or 洪口 (Hongkou), as there is a river mouth debouched into the Huangpu River , in the early Qing dynasty , it was renamed as 虹口 (Hongkou). In 1845, an American bishop W. J. Boone bought an area of land there, and it later evolved into the American Concession in Shanghai in 1848 and merged into
2090-657: A seemingly endless number of buckets of hot water to fill the tub in the morning. In 1915, soon after taking control of the Astor House Hotel, Ezra decided to add a new ballroom. The new ballroom, designed by Lafuente & Wooten , was opened in November 1917. In July 1917, the assistant manager was Mr. Goodrich. Around the end of World War I, the Sixty Club, a group of sixty men-around-town (a mixture of actors and socialites ), and their dates would meet at
2200-529: A sense of personal pride. That gigantic edifice stands where, in the memory of many still living, the swamp-birds called defiantly to the struggling settlement that was finding its feet on the other side of the creek. It personifies to the resident the verification of the brightest dreams that in the old days the most daring dared to dream. A huge, but stately seal has in a sense been set upon the city's aspirations, and it stands at once as an emblem of accomplishment and an example for emulation. Advertising itself as
2310-853: A vast fortune estimated at from twenty to thirty million dollars primarily through the importation of opium and successful real estate investment and management in early twentieth century Shanghai. The Kadoorie family , Iraqi Sephardic Jews from India, who also owned the Palace Hotel at number 19 The Bund , on the corner with Nanjing Road , had a minority share holding in the Astor House Hotel. Despite some shareholder opposition, in March 1915, Captain Henry "Harry" Elrington Morton (born 12 May 1869 in Clonmel , Ireland ; died 2 October 1923 in Manila )
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#17327650501522420-654: The Court of St James's with a copy for ratification by Queen Victoria . The emperor ratified the treaty on 27 October and Queen Victoria added her written assent on 28 December. Ratification was exchanged in Hong Kong on 26 June 1843. Pottinger wrote in a letter to the Earl of Aberdeen the following year that at a feast with Keying celebrating the ratification, Keying insisted they ceremonially exchange miniature portraits of each member of each other's families. Upon receiving
2530-725: The International Concession in 1863, it was in large part reduced to rubble during the Second World war when Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese. 20,000 Ashkenazi Jewish refugees from Nazi -occupied Europe lived in an overcrowded square-mile section known to as the Shanghai Ghetto , in the Tilanqiao neighborhood of Hongkew. In 1947, it was renamed as Hongkou District. Hongkou is responsible for
2640-865: The Pujiang Hotel (浦江饭店) in Chinese from 1959–2018, was described as once "one of the famous hotels of the world". Established in 1846 as Richards' Hotel and Restaurant (礼查饭店) on The Bund in Shanghai , it was located at 15 Huangpu Lu, Shanghai, near the confluence of the Huangpu River and the Suzhou Creek in the Hongkou District , near the northern end of the Waibaidu (Garden) Bridge , from 1858 on. The hotel closed on 1 January 2018, after being purchased by an undisclosed local business. It
2750-709: The Soochow Creek , that was adjacent to the new bridge, and faced the Suzhou Creek near its confluence with the Huangpu River, "at a huge profit for the building of the Astor House Hotel." In February 1858 Richards' store and the Richards Hotel and Restaurant were relocated to the site leased from Charles Wills on the northern banks of the Suzhou Creek. The new Hotel was a two-story East India style building. In February 1858 Richards' store and
2860-715: The Waldorf Astoria of the Orient', its new 211-room building, with a 500-seat dining room. Another advertisement described the Astor House Hotel in even more glowing terms: "Largest, Best and Most Modern Hotel in the Far East. Main Dining Room Seats 500 Guests, and is Electrically Cooled. Two hundred Bedrooms with Hot and Cold Baths Attached to Each Room. Cuisine Unexcelled; Service and Attention Perfect; Lounge, Smoking and Reading Rooms; Barber and Photographer on
2970-555: The Yangtze at the city. On 29 August, British representative Sir Henry Pottinger and Qing representatives Keying , Yilibu , and Niu Jian signed the treaty, which consisted of thirteen articles. The treaty was ratified by the Daoguang Emperor on 27 October and Queen Victoria on 28 December. The exchange of ratification took place in Hong Kong on 26 June 1843. The treaty required the Chinese to pay an indemnity, to cede
3080-484: The managing director . Later that month, as a response to the severe shortage of accommodation in the rapidly growing International settlement, Vernon was able to convince the company to negotiate an extension of the current nine-year lease of the hotel and its property with the Land Investment Company for an additional twenty-one years, of the entire block , which included all the Chinese shops at
3190-546: The Astor House Hotel Co. Ltd. with a capital of $ 450,000. 4,500 shares were issued for $ 100 each, and were fully subscribed with Vernon or his nominees taking 4,494 shares, with the remaining shares purchased by six separate individuals. The shares were soon trading for up to $ 300 each. The Astor House Hotel Ltd. was "incorporated under the Company Ordinances of Hong Kong", with Vernon becoming
3300-604: The Astor House Hotel Co., Brauen "ran off with a huge chunk of hotel funds just three months before the hotel opened, six months behind schedule, in January 1911." A total of $ 957 had been embezzled by Brauen. A warrant for his arrest was issued by the Mixed Court of Shanghai, but Brauen had already left Shanghai on a Japanese steamship. Brauen was spotted in Nagasaki on Thursday, 14 September 1910, but evaded capture. At
3410-566: The Astor House Hotel in June 1923. A 1920 travel guide summarised the features of the Astor House: "Astor House Hotel 250 rooms all with attached baths, the most commodious ballroom in Shanghai, renowned for its lobby, special dinner-parties, and balls. Banquets a special feature, and a French chef employed. Up-to-date hairdressing salon and beauty parlor . Strictly under foreign supervision." Treaty of Nanjing The Treaty of Nanking
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3520-476: The Astor House Hotel: "the Astor House in Shanghai consisted of old three- and four-story brick residences extending around the four sides of a city block and linked together by long corridors. In the center of the compound was a courtyard where an orchestra played in the evenings. Practically everyone dressed for dinner, which never was served before eight o'clock. According to Powell, "Since most of
3630-409: The Astor House each Saturday night. Shanghai was considered the "Paradise of Adventurers", and the "ornate but old-fashioned lobby" of the Astor House was considered its hub. The lobby was furnished with the heavy mahogany chairs and coffee tables . By 1918 the lobby of the Astor House, "that amusing whispering gallery of Shanghai", was "where most business is done" in Shanghai. After China signed
3740-487: The Astor House when their seven-year-old daughter died on 10 February 1861. According to an 1862 guidebook, at that time the building also housed a "soda-water maker" by the name of F. Farr. By October 1868 George Baker was the proprietor of the Astor House. By August 1873 it had been purchased by DeWitt Clinton Jansen . In 1876 the Astor House Hotel was enlarged, with fifty new rooms added that were often used to accommodate newly arrived families who were awaiting
3850-514: The Astor House, and "a more genial and hospitable gentleman never carried out the duties of that position." Room rates were between $ 7 and $ 10 per day (Mexican). The hotel employed 254 people, with each hotel department "under special European supervision". The 1904 announcement of the rebuilding of the Central Hotel (reopened in 1909 as the Palace Hotel ) as a luxury hotel on the Bund, and
3960-456: The Astor is more tangy than elsewhere. All the latest scandal of the town is an old story in its lobbies almost before it occurs." Powell added: "At one time or another one saw most of the leading residents of the port at dinner parties or in the lobby of the Astor House. An old resident of Shanghai once told me, "If you sit in the lobby of the Astor House and keep your eyes open you will see all of
4070-537: The British and American merchants were only subject to the legal control of their permissive consuls. The opium traffic was later legalised in the Treaties of Tianjin , which China concluded after the Second Opium War resulted in another defeat for the Qing dynasty. The Treaty itself contained no provision for the legalization of the opium trade. Stephen R. Platt writes that such a term would have provided
4180-526: The Grand Carleton Hotel in Shanghai in 1920. Under Ladow's supervision, his bartenders served "the finest cocktails in the Far East", a reputation it maintained through the 1930s. In 1904, the Hotel was considered "by far the best hotel in the whole of the East, including Japan." At this time, Mr A. Haller was the manager. About this time, the Hotel's managers wrote letters "complaining to
4290-544: The International Arms Embargo Agreement of 1919, "sinister-looking German, American, British, French, Italian, and Swiss arms dealers appeared in the lobby of the Astor House . . . to dangle fat catalogs of their wares before the eager eyes of any buyers." In 1920, the lobby "with its convivial atmosphere, presents to the visitor a welcome oasis, where congregate travelers from afar to chat pleasantly." Another recorded: "The effervescence at
4400-643: The Island of Hong Kong to the British as a colony, to essentially end the Canton system that had limited trade to that port and allow trade at Five Treaty Ports . It was followed in 1843 by the Treaty of the Bogue , which granted extraterritoriality and most favoured nation status. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Britain faced a growing trade deficit with China. Britain could offer nothing to China to match
4510-597: The Premises. Rates from $ 6; Special Monthly Terms." An advertisement in Social Shanghai in 1910 bragged, "The Astor House Hotel is the most central, popular and modern hotel in Shanghai. At the time of its re-opening in January 1911, the refurbished Astor House Hotel was described as follows: The building has five storeys and attics on the Whangpoo Road frontage and four storeys on the Astor Road side. On
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4620-601: The Question of Hong Kong , under which the sovereignty of the leased territories, together with Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (south of Boundary Street) ceded under the Convention of Peking (1860), was transferred to the PRC on 1 July 1997. The treaty was sealed by interpreter John Robert Morrison for the British and Wang Tajin for the Chinese. Harry Parkes , who was a student of Chinese under Morrison, gave his account of
4730-476: The Richards Hotel and Restaurant were relocated to the site leased from Charles Wills on the northern banks of the Suzhou Creek , near its confluence with the Huangpu River in the Hongkou District of Shanghai. By 1859 the hotel was renamed (in English) the Astor House Hotel, while retaining the original Chinese name until 1959. The Astor House Hotel was sold to Englishman Henry W. Smith on 1 January 1861; Richards and his wife were still residents of
4840-415: The SHC would also purchase the land at the back of the Hotel, so that the property would extend from Whangpoo (Huangpu) Road to Broadway, and from Astor Road to Seward Road. By 1890, "For foreigners the Astor House was the center of social activity." Renovations to the Astor Hall were completed in time for the annual St. Andrew's Ball on Wednesday, 30 November 1892. In 1894 the Astor House was described as
4950-468: The St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in the French Concession. That evening, they departed on their honeymoon in the USA and Scotland, and returned to Shanghai early in 1912. The Secretary of the Hotel, Mr. Whitlow, was appointed acting manager, but was soon replaced by Mr. Olsen. On 3 November 1911, during the Xinhai Revolution that would lead to the collapse of the Qing dynasty in February 1912, an armed rebellion began in Shanghai, which resulted in
5060-489: The Treaty of Nanking’s terms remarkably resembled another treaty signed with the central Asian state of Kokand, which had also conflicted with the Qing over control of trade along Qing frontiers. Failing to achieve results with a complete trade ban, the Qing arranged a treaty with Kokand that granted Kokandis “the right to live, trade, and levy taxes […] appoint consuls with extraterritorial jurisdiction over their compatriots in China,” alongside an indemnity. The precedent set by
5170-612: The administration of the following subdistricts . Previously Lianhua Supermarket had its Shanghai office in the district. Russian Consulate School in Shanghai is a Russian overseas primary school operated by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , located on the grounds of the Consulate-General of Russia in Shanghai in Hongkou District. Hongkou is currently served by five metro lines operated by Shanghai Metro : 31°16′13″N 121°28′48″E / 31.2703°N 121.48°E / 31.2703; 121.48 Astor House, Shanghai The Astor House Hotel , known as
5280-420: The annual meeting of Astor Hotel Co. in September 1911, Mr. F. Airscough, the chairman, reported that Brauen had been "a thoroughly capable hotel Manager" but who had "left our employment under most regrettable circumstances". Costing $ 360,000, the restoration was completed in December 1910, and the official opening was on Monday, 16 January 1911. The North-China Herald reported: The enduring impression of
5390-510: The back of the hotel. The section resembled an American club, because practically all of the rooms and suites were occupied by young Americans who had come out to join the consulate, commercial attaché 's office, or business firms whose activities were undergoing rapid expansion. Sanitary arrangements left much to be desired. There was no modern plumbing. The bathtub consisted of a large earthenware pot about four feet high and four feet in diameter....The Chinese servant assigned to me would carry in
5500-415: The capture of the city on 8 November 1911, and the establishment of the Shanghai Military Government of the Republic of China, which was formally declared on 1 January 1912. Business proceeded for the Astor House Hotel, where rooms were available from $ 6 to $ 10 per night. However, the effects of the Revolution and the long absence of Gerrard resulted in a three-month operating loss of $ 60,000. On 30 June 1912,
5610-406: The ceremony: There were four copies of the Treaty signed and sealed. They were bound in worked yellow silk, one Treaty in English and the same in Chinese stitched and bound together formed a copy. This being finished they all came out of the after-cabin and sat down to tiffin , and the different officers seated themselves all round the table, making plenty of guests. Almost directly after the Treaty
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#17327650501525720-454: The change of ownership, Gerrard's services were no longer required. Central Stores Ltd. (renamed The Shanghai Hotels Limited in 1917) was owned 80% by Edward Isaac Ezra (born 3 January 1882 in Shanghai; died 16 December 1921 in Shanghai), the managing director of Shanghai Hotels Ltd., the largest stockholder, and its major financier , At one time, Ezra was "one of the wealthiest foreigners in Shanghai". According to one report, Ezra amassed
5830-415: The completion of the Wills Bridge allowed the expansion of the over-crowded settlement. Wills, who owned the land on the northern side of Suzhou Creek, benefited from increased property values. During 1857 Wills leased a lot that was slightly larger than 22 mu (15,000 m (160,000 sq ft)) in a section of reclaimed mud flats in Hongkew east of Broadway (now Daming Lu) on the northern banks of
5940-422: The completion of their own residences. After the 1876 expansion the hotel was "four large neo-Renaissance brick buildings linked together by stone passageways." American travel writer Thomas Wallace Knox (1835–1896) stayed there in 1879, providing a positive review in his Boy Travellers in the Far East . In January 1877 plans were announced to construct a Turkish bath on the Seward Road frontage as part of
6050-455: The crooks who hang out on the China coast." According to Ron Gluckman, "Opium was commonplace, says one woman who lived in Shanghai before World War II. 'It was just what you had, after dinner, like dessert.' Opium and heroin were available via room service at some of the old hotels like the Cathay and Astor, which offered drugs, girls, boys, whatever you wanted." In 1919, Zhou Xiang (周祥), "an Astor House bellboy , rewarded for recovering
6160-432: The death of principal architect Brenan Atkinson in 1907, he was replaced by his brother, G. B. Atkinson. The intention was to rebuild the hotel "on modern lines", using reinforced concrete as the primary building material. Included in the plans were: "the dining room, facing the Soochow Creek , is to be extended along the whole front of the building. Winter gardens are being constructed, the writing and smoking rooms, and
6270-407: The demolition of the nearby Garden Bridge, and construction of the current Waibaidu Bridge in 1907, which involved the resumption of part of the Astor House Hotel's property, forced the owners of the Astor House Hotel to begin extensive renovations. From February 1907, the hotel's manager was Swiss citizen Walter Brauen, a skilled linguist who had been recruited from Europe. The existing hotel
6380-543: The dome. Additionally, the Hotel now had a 24-hour hot water supply, some of the earliest elevators in China, and each of the 250 guest rooms had its own telephone, as well as an attached bath. A major feature of the reconstruction was the creation of the Peacock Hall, "the city's first ballroom", "the most commodious ballroom in Shanghai". The newly restored Astor House Hotel was renowned for its lobby, special dinner-parties, and balls." According to Peter Hibbard, "[D]espite their architectural bravura and decorative grandeur,
6490-467: The emperor had given his assent to the treaty and the first instalment of money had been received (Article XII). British troops would remain in Gulangyu and Zhaobaoshan until the Qing government had paid reparations in full (Article XII). In 1841, a rough outline for a treaty was sent for the guidance of Plenipotentiary Charles Elliot . It had a blank after the words "the cession of the islands of". Pottinger sent this old draft treaty on shore, with
6600-401: The end of 1887, the Astor House was described by Simon Adler Stern as "the principal American hotel in Shanghai" The Astor House Hotel was "a landmark of the white man in the Far East, like Raffles Hotel in Singapore." During 1889, The Shanghai Land Investment Company Limited (SLIC), which was formed in December 1888, purchased the "extensive estate known as the Wills' Estate, which includes
6710-413: The expansion of the Astor House. In 1881 Jansen renewed his lease of the Astor House Hotel with the trustees of the Wills' Estate for a period of thirty years. In July 1882, the Astor House Hotel became the first building in China to be lit by electricity, and in 1883 it became the first building in Shanghai to install running water. In 1882 the Astor House hosted the first Western circus in China. By
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#17327650501526820-406: The expansion of the hotel, with the expectation that the increased number of rooms would generate a surplus of income to repay the dentures expeditiously. In 1902, after less than two years of leadership, Vernon retired because of ill-health, and left owing the company "a considerable sum of money". By 1904, Vernon was living in Tangku (Tanggu), and was the owner of the steamship George , which
6930-400: The finishing touches of a picturesque uniform. During 1914, the Astor Gardens, the portion of the hotel grounds at the front of the Hotel known as "the foreshore" that had stretched to the Suzhou Creek, was sold to allow the construction of the consulate of the Empire of Russia immediately in front of the Hotel. By October 1914, the Hotel's financial position had improved sufficiently to allow
7040-459: The first Western restaurants in Shanghai and the first Western hotel in China. These were located south of the Yangkingpang (Yangjingbang) creek. The hotel was "a single and ordinary building" built in the Baroque style , which initially targeted the seafaring clientele that made up the bulk of travelers to 19th century Shanghai. One contemporaneous account describes corridors and floors whose color and design echoed those on ships. Almost
7150-454: The first sound film in China was shown at the Hotel. At this time there were still restrictions on Chinese entering the Astor House Hotel. At the annual meeting of the Astor House Hotel Company held at the hotel in October 1913, the directors revealed plans to increase profit by another reconstruction, including the construction of a new theatre seating 1,200 people to replace Astor Hall, which seated only 300; additional luxury suites; and also
7260-405: The first western movies shown in China were shown at the Astor House Hotel. On 9 June 1908, a motion picture with some sound was first shown in China in the open air in the hotel's garden. Construction finally commenced in November 1908, and was scheduled to be completed by July 1909. However, delays postponed completion until November 1910. In September 1910, days after the annual meeting of
7370-423: The fixed trade tariff, extraterritoriality , the most favoured nation provisions and freeing the importation of British opium which continued to have social and economic consequences for the Chinese people. These terms were imposed by the British and extended to other Western powers with most favoured nation status, and were conceded by the ruling Qing dynasty in order to avert continued military defeats and under
7480-400: The following treaties of 1843, 1858, and 1860, ended the Canton System as created in 1760. These treaties created a new framework for China's foreign relations and overseas trade, which would last for almost a hundred years and marked the start of what later nationalists called China's " century of humiliation ." From the perspective of modern Chinese nationalists, the most injurious terms were
7590-414: The foreign-run Shanghai Municipal Council about " natives ," " coolies " and " rickshaws " making too much noise for patrons to bear." By July 1906, retired British naval officer Captain Frederick W. Davies (born about 1850; died 16 January 1935 in Shanghai), who had previously been a sea captain on the NYK European Service, and associate manager of the Grand Hotel in Yokohama , had become manager of
7700-422: The foreshore property between Whangpoo Road and the Suchow Creek, for 25,000 taels (US$ 33,333.33). On 11 December 1913, the Astor House Hotel hosted a banquet for both the New York Giants of John McGraw and Chicago White Stockings of Charles Comiskey baseball teams, which included Christy Mathewson and Olympian Jim Thorpe , who were touring the world playing exhibition games . This transnational tour
7810-427: The formative years of both the Palace and Astor House Hotels were overshadowed by an inability to cater for the fast changing tastes of Shanghai society and her visitors". In 1911, John H. Russell, Jr. told his daughter, the future Brooke Astor , that the Hotel offered "the finest service in the world", and that in response to her question about "a man dressed in a white skirt and blue jacket beside every second door",
7920-488: The ground floor, at the corner of Whangpoo Road and the Broadway, is a handsomely appointed public bar-room and buffet , 59 ft (18 m). by 51 ft (16 m) .; in the centre, with main entrance from Whangpoo Road, is a magnificent lounge ball, 70 ft (21 m). by 60 ft (18 m) ., and at the East end are the Hotel office and the manager's office, with the secretary's office, in mezzanine , above
8030-452: The growing importation of Chinese goods to Britain, such as tea and porcelain. In British India , opium was grown on plantations and auctioned to merchants, who then sold it to Chinese who smuggled it into China (Chinese law forbade the importation and sale of opium). The use of opium within China had become a nation wide emergency. China's social stability had significantly decreased because
8140-542: The hope that most favoured nation provision would set the foreigners against each other. Although China regained tariff autonomy in the 1920s, extraterritoriality was not formally abolished until the 1943 Sino-British Treaty for the Relinquishment of Extra-Territorial Rights in China . The stipulation of legal equality in diplomatic proceedings between Britain and China ended the centuries-long Sinocentric tributary system of interstate relations that placed China atop
8250-425: The hot months, electric fans are worked. A gallery runs down either side, and in the busy season is also filled with tables. A band plays nightly....'Boys' moved hither and thither dressed in long blue shirts over which were worn short white sleeveless jackets, the latter obviously full dress, as they were dispensed with at breakfast or tiffin . Soft black shoes over white stockings, and legs swathed with dark felt were
8360-419: The house is a long glass arcade . Upon one side of this are the offices, where the clerks and commissioners will attend promptly and courteously to every want; upon the other is a luxuriously furnished lounge, and, adjoining this, the reading, smoking, and drawing rooms . The dining room has accommodations for five hundred persons. It is lighted with hundreds of small electric lamps , whose rays are reflected by
8470-531: The large dining room at the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai on 8 October 1907, with over 280 in attendance; it was, at that time, "the largest affair of the kind ever given in China." During the dinner, Taft made a significant speech on the relationship between the United States and China, and supporting the Open Door foreign policy previously advocated by John Hay . Organized Sunday School work in China
8580-607: The large mirrors arranged around the walls, and when dinner is in progress, and the band is playing in the gallery, the scene is both bright and animated. There are some two hundred bedrooms, each with a bathroom adjoining, all of which look outward, facing either the city or the Huangpu River . Easy access is gained to the various floors upon which they are situated by electric elevators . The hotel...generates its own electricity and has its own refrigerating plant." Architects and civil engineers Davies & Thomas (established in 1896 by Gilbert Davies and C.W, Thomas), were responsible for
8690-408: The latter. The basement fronting Astor Road contains store-rooms, the steam-heating apparatus, and motor fire-pump. The grand staircase, with marble dado and red panels on white background, leads upward to passenger lifts , a ladies cloak room , a very prettily furnished ladies' sitting room, a reading room with several comfortable sofas and easy chairs upholstered in leather, a private buffet with
8800-433: The letter s struck out of islands and the words Hong Kong placed after it. Robert Montgomery Martin , treasurer of Hong Kong, wrote in an official report: The terms of peace having been read, Elepoo the senior commissioner paused, expecting something more, and at length said "is that all?" Mr. Morrison enquired of Lieutenant-colonel Malcolm [Pottinger's secretary] if there was anything else, and being answered in
8910-565: The lower class had been all but demolished from the easy access citizens had to opium. This in turn led to major health concerns and labor productivity within China also dropping drastically. When Lin Zexu seized this privately owned opium and ordered the destruction of opium at Humen , Britain first demanded reparations, then declared what became known as the First Opium War . Britain's use of recently invented military technology produced
9020-440: The managers of the Astor House had been sea captains, the hotel had taken on many of the characteristics of a ship." While at that time the Hotel charged about $ 10 a day Mexican for accommodation, "a room in the "steerage" ... [cost] $ 125 a month, including meals and afternoon tea. That figured out at about $ 60 in United States currency." According to Powell, the "steerage" section ... consisted of single rooms and small suites at
9130-530: The money that was not paid in a timely manner (Article VII). The Qing government undertook to release all British prisoners of war (Article VIII), and to give a general amnesty to all Chinese subjects who had cooperated with the British during the war (Article IX). The British on their part, undertook to withdraw all of their troops from Nanjing, the Grand Canal and the military post at Zhenhai , as well as not to interfere with China trade generally, after
9240-559: The negative, Elepoo immediately and with great tact closed the negotiation by saying, " all shall be granted—it is settled—it is finished ." The Qing government agreed to make Hong Kong Island a crown colony , ceding it to the Queen Victoria of Great Britain , in perpetuity ( 常 遠 , Cháng yuǎn , in the Chinese version of the treaty), to provide British traders with a harbour where they could "careen and refit their ships and keep stores for that purpose" (Article III). Pottinger
9350-478: The new northern section of the hotel contained only 120 rooms, less than half of the number that Vernon had envisaged. An outbreak of cholera in the city resulted in few guests when the northern wing was opened in November 1903. It was managed originally by "an eccentric American" octaroon , Louis Ladow (died in China on 20 November 1928), who had been imprisoned in Folsom Prison , who subsequently built
9460-452: The opium that had been confiscated by Lin Zexu in 1839 (Article IV), 3 million dollars in compensation for debts that the merchants in Canton owed British merchants (Article V), and a further 12 million dollars in war reparations for the cost of the war (Article VI). The total sum of 21 million dollars was to be paid in instalments over three years and the Qing government would be charged an annual interest rate of 5 percent for
9570-501: The opponents of Lord Palmerston, who headed the Conservative government that launched the war, with a seeming confirmation for their claim that the war was fought to support the opium trade. Instead, Palmerston asked his negotiators to request the Chinese to legalize the sale of opium on their own initiative, outside of the treaty’s terms, which they refused. These treaties had deep and lasting effect. Nanking Treaty, together with
9680-436: The others being Guangzhou , Amoy , Fuzhou , and Ningbo . On 17 November 1843, Shanghai was declared open to foreign traders, and soon after the British concession in Shanghai was established and the boundaries gradually defined. Afterward, the resident foreign population of the British concession increased: "In 1844 [at years end] it was 50, in the following year 90, and after five years it had grown to 175. In addition there
9790-588: The parties concluded the supplementary Treaty of the Bogue at the Bocca Tigris outside Canton. Nevertheless, the treaties of 1842–43 left several unsettled issues. In particular they did not resolve the status of the opium traffic in favour of the British Empire. Although the Treaty of Wanghia with the Americans in 1844 explicitly banned Americans from selling opium, the trade continued as both
9900-814: The previous year, in April 1920, Morton was forced to resign as the manager of the Shanghai Hotels Companies, Ltd, due to a new British government Order in Council restricting management of British companies to British subjects. Morton subsequently left Shanghai in May 1920 on board the steamer Ecuador . Morton was replaced by Canadian Walter Sharp Bardarson (born 20 September 1877 in Roikoyerg, Iceland); died 17 October 1944 in Alameda, California ). who became an American citizen after he resigned from
10010-505: The private bar and billiard room will be enlarged and the kitchen placed upon the roof." A new reinforced concrete wharf measuring 1,180 feet (360 m) long and 200 feet (61 m) wide was also constructed. Prior to the new construction, future US President William Howard Taft , then US Secretary of War , and his wife, Helen Herron Taft , were honoured at a banquet organised by the American Association of China in
10120-617: The re-building of the three principal wings of the Astor House Hotel. The Astor House Hotel was to be restored to a neo-classical Baroque structure, making it once again "the finest hotel in the Far East". The new addition (the Annex) was based on plans drawn by "Shanghai's leading architects of the time", British architects and civil engineers , Brenan Atkinson and Arthur Dallas (born 9 January 1860 in Shanghai ; died 6 August 1924 in London), established as Atkinson & Dallas in 1898. After
10230-493: The rear of the hotel, thus greatly expanding its holding but also increasing substantially the company's debt. Vernon intended to demolish the Chinese shops to allow the construction of a new three-storied wing containing 250 rooms, thus increasing its capacity to 300 rooms, with the ground floor of the new wing to provide first class accommodation for retail stores. Debentures with a return of 6% were issued in July 1901 to finance
10340-410: The right to send consuls to the treaty ports, which were given the right to communicate directly with local Chinese officials (Article II). The treaty stipulated that trade in the treaty ports should be subject to fixed tariffs, which were to be agreed upon between the British and the Qing governments (Article X). The Qing government was obliged to pay the British government 6 million silver dollars for
10450-409: The shareholders to approve the renovation plans, which included demolishing the old dining room and kitchen to create eight shops that could be leased, and first class bedrooms and small apartments; construction of a new dining room in the centre of the hotel; relocation of the kitchen on the top floor to allow the conversion to bachelor's bedrooms; and conversion of part of the bar and billiard room into
10560-590: The site of the Astor House Hotel, and possesses one of the best business situations in Hongkew" for 390,000 taels, approximately US$ 290,000. By the end of November 1889 Jansen agreed with the Shanghai Land Investment Company to transfer the Astor House Hotel and its land to the proposed Shanghai Hotel Company (SHC). To allow for the expansion of the Astor House and the construction of a new one-hundred bedroom hotel and large assembly hall,
10670-503: The two peoples. This extravagant display has been analysed as showing an "erotically charged ... reciprocity [in] this symbolic gesture of swapping images of wives. Because of the brevity of the Treaty of Nanking and its terms being phrased only as general stipulations, the British and Chinese representatives agreed that a supplementary treaty should be concluded to establish more detailed regulations for relations. On 3 October 1843,
10780-532: Was "a retired ship captain who ran it as a ship, the hotel had corridors painted with portholes and trompe-l'œil seascapes and rooms decorated like cabins; there was even a " steerage " section with bunks instead of beds at cheaper rates." American journalist John B. Powell, who first arrived in Shanghai in 1917 to work for Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard , the founder of what later became The China Weekly Review , described his new accommodation at
10890-497: Was a 'floating population,' consisting of the men on shore from the ships in harbour." Among the first foreign residents of Shanghai was Peter Felix Richards , a Scottish merchant. Richards had been doing business in China from about 1840; and in 1844 had established P.F. Richards & Co. (of Shanghai and Fuzhou ). P.F. Richards operated a general store, a ship chandler , and a commissioned agent business on 4th Avenue (四马路) (now Fuzhou Road; 福州路). In 1846, Richards opened one of
11000-561: Was a landmark in the Hongkou District and the centre of foreign social life before the opening of the Cathay Hotel . It occupies an entire block, and is across the road from the Russian Consulate . Previously, the consulates of Germany, the United States and Japan were also located in row up the row from the Hotel. On 29 August 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing declared Shanghai to be one of five open treaty ports in China,
11110-564: Was born at Shanghai on 4 May 1907. "This beginning of Sunday-school history in China took place in Room 128 of the Astor House, Shanghai, occupied at that time by Mr. [Frank A.] Smith." The opening of a tram line in March 1908 over the new Garden bridge along Broadway (now Daming Lu) past the Astor House Hotel by the Shanghai British Trolley Company, greatly increased both access and business. Also in this period,
11220-833: Was converted to the China Securities Museum , which opened in December 2018. The Astor House Hotel has been on the North Bund of Shanghai , by the northern end of the Waibaidu Bridge (Chinese: 外白渡桥 ; pinyin: Wàibáidù Qiáo ) (the Garden Bridge in English), since 1858. The hotel is on a 4,580 square metres (49,300 sq ft) site and has a total building area of 16,563 m (178,280 sq ft) with 134 rooms and suites. It
11330-404: Was described as "the leading hotel of Shanghai...., but has an unpretentious appearance." The company decided to embark on a completely new hotel, "fitting of Shanghai's growth and importance" and "better than any in the Far East." In 1908, before any reconstruction or renovations, the Astor House was described in glowing terms: Leading straight from the entrance to the main residential portion of
11440-533: Was hosted at the Astor House, which celebrated the 60th birthday of Cixi , the Emperor Dowager, thus "ending the social stricture that women should not attend social events"; One traveller indicated in 1900, "the Astor-House Hotel at Shanghai, it might be called European with a few Chinese characteristics. We of course had Chinese to wait on us here". In July 1901, Vernon privately floated
11550-817: Was later appointed the first Governor of Hong Kong . In 1860, the colony was extended with the addition of the Kowloon peninsula under the Convention of Peking and in 1898, the Second Convention of Peking further expanded the colony with the 99-year lease of the New Territories . In 1984, the governments of the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China (PRC) concluded the Sino-British Joint Declaration on
11660-472: Was led by Albert Goodwill Spalding , owner of the White Stockings, "professional baseball's most influential figure." At that time, "No hotel in Shanghai, and few in the world, surpassed the Astor House Hotel. A handsome and impressive stone edifice of arched windows and balconies, the hotel stood six stories high and sprawled over three acres of land near the heart of the city. On 29 December 1913
11770-638: Was seized that year off Liaotishan as a prize of war by the Empire of Japan , after transferring goods to Russia during the Russo-Japanese War . Subsequently Vernon was manager of the Hotel de France and from 1916 the Keihin Hotel in Kamakura, Japan . As Vernon had planned, the Chinese shops that occupied the newly leased property at the rear of the existing hotel were demolished. However,
11880-467: Was signed, a yellow flag for China at the main and a Union Jack for England at the mizen were hoisted, and at the same time a royal salute of twenty-one guns was fired. The Daoguang Emperor gave his assent for the treaty on 8 September. After his assent arrived in Nanjing on 15 September, Pottinger's secretary George Alexander Malcolm was dispatched on board the steamer Auckland the next morning to
11990-471: Was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later termed the " unequal treaties ". In the wake of China's military defeat, with British warships poised to attack Nanjing (then romanized as Nanking), British and Chinese officials negotiated on board HMS Cornwallis anchored in
12100-454: Was told by Russell: "They are the 'boys'. ... When you want your breakfast or your tea, just open the door and tell them." In October 1910, Scotsman William Logan Gerrard, who was a long-time resident of Shanghai, was appointed the new manager, but severe illness forced him into hospital for several weeks, before being invalided home temporarily. Soon after his release from the hospital, Gerrard married Gertrude Heard on Tuesday 19 July 1911 at
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