The Compass G.
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The Fairmont Peace Hotel 上海和平饭店 is less a hotel and more a time machine with room service. Opened in 1929 as the Cathay Hotel by Sir Victor Sassoon (a man who basically decided Shanghai needed Vegas before Vegas existed), it still stands on the Bund like an Art Deco pyramid doing a permanent mic drop.
Walk through the doors and suddenly you’re not in 2025, you’re in a Shanghai where tuxedoed millionaires clinked martinis with qipao-clad movie stars, and jazz was considered international diplomacy. The marble floors gleam so hard you could land a plane on them, the chandeliers look like they were designed to outshine the sun, and somewhere in the corner the Old Jazz Band keeps playing, proving that neither music nor musicians ever truly retire, they just become historical exhibits with trumpets.
Rooms? Plush enough to make you wonder if you should sleep or just lie awake admiring the wallpaper. Service? The kind where staff anticipate your needs before you do, which is charming and slightly terrifying. And the bar? It makes you feel like you’re in a 1930s spy thriller, waiting for someone to slide you a top-secret file along with your gin fizz.
Yes, it’s absurdly expensive. Yes, it’s over the top. But this isn’t just a hotel.. it’s a shrine to Shanghai’s roaring past, where history, jazz, and glamour got drunk together and decided never to sober up. Highly recommended if you want to stay somewhere that feels less like lodging and more like starring in your own vintage movie.