Last Friday I was having a drink at the rooftop terrace of Bar Rouge with friends visiting Shanghai and we were looking at the Peace Hotel next door. I told them that the place had been under re-construction for ages and that I wondered if it would ever reopen.

The Shanghai Daily answered my question today, writing that the hotel should reopen in March 2010. Searching my old blog posts I found that the hotel closed its doors for renovation in early 2007, so when it opens again it will have been closed for almost 3 years. Have they been working on it for the past years or did the negotiations take years to finalize?

According to my favorite Shanghai English language paper (luckily for them they have no competition) the new name of the hotel will be the Fairmont Peace Hotel Shanghai. The landmark property on the Bund will keep its Art Deco style but the interior will be completely renovated. The Fairmont will offer 250 room and suites, with prices between USD 300 and 400 – several times higher than the prices before the renovation. Hopefully the Fairmont will manage the hotel better than the former owners, because it used to be a total mess. I stayed there a few times in my early China years (around 2000 or 2001) and I remember that there were always problems with the service, the rooms or the noise.

By the way, I wonder whether the Fairmont Peace Hotel will get its own Twitterstream as well. I noticed that last week the new Fairmont in Beijing started following me on Twitter, so who knows I might soon be able to tweet with the new Peace Hotel 🙂