Photo of the day No. 14 - The Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong

26 Feb

A Hong Kong Cultural Icon and you should pay a visit

**Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years - I know the place.**
**I have personally completed 2,300+ Private Experiences (over 6,000+ guests) since April 2011 and I am considered one of the finest Private Tour Guides in Asia.**

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Photo of the day No. 14 - The Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong

A Hong Kong Cultural Icon and you should pay a visit

click on the image to enlarge

Learn more | The Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong Official website

“The Peninsula Hotels is the world's leading luxury hotel brand, owned and operated by The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited (HSH) which was incorporated in 1866. HSH has a proud heritage as Asia's oldest hotel company still in operation. The flagship Peninsula Hotel opened its doors in Hong Kong in 1928.”

The Hotel was originally slated to open in 1924 but delays meant that the building was not completed until 1927 but did not actually open until December 1928.

One of my favourite images and one that highlights the importance of visiting Hotels in Hong Kong on a regular basis, you never know what you will see or who you will bump into in the Hotel lobby! “I have shaken hands with members of The Damned and the Wu Tang Clan in hotel lobbies and written about that!”

I love the Peninsula Hotel and have done so since I first entered the lobby on January 2nd 1972, when we arrived in Hong Kong we were put up in the Merlin Hotel (which was later demolished and replaced by the Kowloon Hotel) which was conveniently located just 50 yards away from the back of the Peninsula Hotel. I was 11 years old and from a working class English family and I was in absolute awe of the Peninsula Hotel Lobby which remarkably has not changed that much since 1972.

I have lost count of the number of times I have stood in the lobby and made a grand exit from the main lobby doors as seen in the image above, it has to be many thousands of times and I never, ever, get tired of just chilling on one of the lobby chairs doing a spot of people watching.

Incidentally the 4 lovely young ladies in the image were models doing a photo shoot, not an uncommon “happening” in the Peninsula Hotel.

Here is one of the best articles you can read about this amazing hotel

Learn more | The history of the Peninsula Hotel by Localiz Magazine

My great friend Amy who owns and operates Hong Kong Greeters one of the best Private Tour Companies in Hong Kong write a great article about Afternoon Tea and High Tea a few years ago and is still relevant today, well worth a read, see link below

Learn more | Afternoon tea vs High Tea by Amy of Hong Kong Greeters

I quite often take my guests to Hotel, it is great for a photo op with the Hotel’s Brewster green Rolls Royce Phantoms (they have 14 of them and every now and then the famous Afternoon Tea is done so to speak, talk about iconic! I have never personally stayed in the Hotel but have been in quite a few of the luxurious rooms, I had a young female guest go into Graff Jewellers at the top of the iconic stairs in the lobby and try on US$1 Million diamond rings and necklaces and naturally the rest rooms are awesome and welcoming!

In 2017 I wrote a very, very short blog post about Room 336 of the Peninsula Hotel along with an image I took of the very plain door to the room which is a guest room to this day.

“This is Room 336 of the Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong and very important at that....

Over its long history The Peninsula has been the scene of many historic events. In Room 336, the documents representing the surrender of Hong Kong to the Japanese were signed on Christmas Day, 1941 by General C. M. Maltby and Sir Mark Young, the Governor of Hong Kong.

It is a shame that there isn't a brass plaque on the wall to mention this, I imagine this is so it does not annoy any Japanese guests.... and yes, I took the picture and yes I fully understand the Hotels reluctance to publicise this story.”

Here are some more interesting facts about the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong

The Hotel is owned by Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels a major property developer in Hong Kong owned by the Kadoorie Family a wealthy Jewish family who have been in Hong Kong since 1880 and are originally from Iraq
Sir Michael Kadoorie the current chairman is a car nut and has a huge collection of expensive cars which explains his passion for Rolls Royce cars!
They have a diverse work force in the Hotel including deaf disabled people working the main doors, like all great Hotels the staff make or break a Hotel and the staff in the Hotel are wonderful.
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotel Group also own and operate the Peak Tram and the Peak Tower at Victoria Peak, the green 6th generation Peak Tram is basically the same green colour as the Peninsula Hotel Rolls Royce’s, the Peak Tram is another Hong Kong icon but that term does not apply to the Peak Tower but that is another story for another day
I still believe that Afternoon Tea in the Peninsula Hotel Lobby is still the best in Hong Kong, naturally that is just my personal opinion
The Peninsula Hotel has a gift shop in the basement of the shopping mall within the Hotel which is absolutely worth a look!
As is Graff Jewellers one floor up from the lobby!
The Hotel is located at the junction of Salisbury Road and Nathan Road in TST, Kowloon - the road was named after Sir Matthew Nathan who was Governor of Hong Kong from 1904 to 1907 and was also Jewish
from my perspective the Hotel is one of the very best located Hotels in Hong Kong
Prior to the Hotel ordering Rolls Royce’s (they have ordered 8 fleets of Rolls Royce’s since 1970) the Hotels used Ford Fairlane’s and they used the US made Lincoln cars in the early 1980’s for a while presumably whilst waiting for a delivery of the Rolls Royce’s

So there you go, when in Hong Kong do visit the Peninsula Hotel if only to stand in that iconic lobby and soak up the history of one of the most famous Hotels in the world.