Grand statement
Hong Kong's Peninsula glimmers with pedigree -- and a 30-story addition
This is surely one of the grandest of the grands -- the Peninsula Hong Kong, known intimately as "The Pen." Presidents and prime ministers, movie stars and musicians have roamed the Pen's 7,800- square-foot lobby and taken in the sweeping views of Victoria Harbor. And many of them have arrived at the hotel's private helicopter landing and been whisked away in one of its fleet of Rolls Royce limousines -- including a fully restored,1934 Phantom II.
When it opened on December 11, 1928, the then-six-story hotel had every modern convenience imaginable, from radiators in each room (including hallways) to central heating and vacuuming. It still does offer the latest innovations, with its most recent renovation completed in 1995 to include laser disc players, fax machines and modem lines.
The Pen's first guests, before the hotel's official opening, were British troops from the 2nd Batallion Coldstream Guards and the Devonshire Regiment awaiting possible deployment against Chiang Kai Shek's Kuomintang forces in Shanghai. The soldiers stayed for 14 months in 1927-28, but were never deployed. Their stint at the Pen wrecked the hotel's uncarpeted halls and all the bathtubs, which were apparently used to store rifles and bayonets.
The soldiers stayed for 14 months in 1927-28, but were never deployed. Their stint at the Pen wrecked the hotel's uncarpeted halls and all the bathtubs, which were apparently used to store rifles and bayonets. Playwrights George Bernard Shaw and Noel Coward, philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., and the Duke of Gloucester were among the Pen's earliest real guests, helping draw tourist attention from Shanghai to Hong Kong. The hotel's balls and dances were the talk of the British Empire, and it became known as the "finest hotel east of Suez."
World War II brought a Japanese occupation -- temporarily the Peninsula was the seat of Japan's Hong Kong government -- and a change of name to the Toa (East Asia) Hotel. The occupation ended with the surrender of the Japanese, and the hotel's original name returned.
Located in Kowloon, Hong Kong's thriving business, entertainment and shopping area, the Peninsula has been a setting for many Hollywood films. More notable celluloid examples include the Clark Gable/Susan Hayward release "Soldier of Fortune" in the 1950s and "The Man with the Golden Gun."
The legends surrounding this hotel are too numerous to record in a brief space, but they can be found in the Peninsula's own coffee table book: "The Peninsula, Portrait of a Grand Old Lady" (Roundhouse Publications, 1997).
And now this "grand old lady" -- with a 30-story tower added seamlessly to the original hotel -- is the elder statesmen of a group of younger Peninsulas around the globe, from Beijing to Beverly Hills.
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