Walter Hutchens’ Blog

Yesterday I visited the Astor House Hotel, one of the oldest buildings on the Bund in Shanghai. It was a hotel as early as 1846, called Richards House then, after the family that ran it. The grand Astor House was built in 1906. Einstein, US President Grant, Bertrand Russell and Scott Joplin all stayed there. It was the site of the first use in China of a telephone and electric light, according to signs in the lobby. When the Shanghai stock exchange was reopened in Dec. 1990, it was in the former “Peacock Lounge” of the old hotel. A few people are still trading there–it is now leased by a securities company.