Luggage Labels, Lost in Time - part III of VI

Before we leave Shanghai, in this series anyway, the Park Hotel is one of my absolute favorites. Not only is the hotel and surrounding area itself interesting, I just love the label. I find the artwork to capture everything that it was. It makes no pretense of being Chinese at all! Who thinks of horse racing in China? The Brits.

When completed in 1934, this magnificent art deco hotel was the tallest building in all of Asia at 24 floors! Note that the Shanghai Tower in Pudong (built recently) has 124 floors. Designed by Slovakian architect Laszlo Hudec, it evokes the American Radiator Building in New York.

The hotel was established to compete with The Cathay as the premier destination for lodging and nightlife. The location is off the Bund, across from the Public Recreation Ground (today People's Park) where the famous shopping centers on Nanjing Road became Bubbling Well Road.

Bubbling Well was the area where the wealthiest British ex-pats had their stately country homes. It was also an area of upscale nightlife. As you can see, this was an area of social high life, with the Shanghai Race club (horses), bowling, golf, Union Jack Club, and Country Club. This area was the heart and soul of British colonial life (not business) in Shanghai. With modern department stores on Nanjing Road stocking the latest Paris fashions, there was little need to move more than a mile in any direction from the Park Hotel other than for business.

I've visited this area a number of times. Once I ate a glorious lunch atop the Race Club, a beautiful old building still filled with mementos of that time. I looked on the park and imagined the horses racing around. I've visited the still-going hotel and its museum to imagine the past. I've shopped Nanking Road (the modern name). I've walked the park and its fascinating museums - once I encountered an umbrella market in the park, where old ladies advertise their available daughters for marriage by posting pictures and vitals on open umbrellas that they hold out. 

This old photograph from the era clearly shows the hotel, race track, and golf course and clubhouse. Notice the buildings to the right of the hotel that are shown on the sticker. Immediately to the right is the YMCA. The one with the spire is the Pacific Hotel. All are considered historic architecture.

Back to the Park. It remained the tallest building in China until 1944, and the tallest in Shanghai until 1983 - about the time Pudong sprung up from the marshes. Consequently, it was topped with radio antennas as the highest ground, and inside was marked "the zero spot" of Shanghai, the geographical reference point by which all other things are measured from.

Here is one last modern day photo of the hotel. While beautiful inside and out, I find the exterior color a bit dark and it reminds me of something from Batman.