Shanghai
Fairmont Peace Hotel
As seen in Empire of the Sun (1987), The White Countess (2005)
Explore HotelWhen it opened in 1929 as the Cathay Hotel, the green-pyramid-roofed tower built by the businessman Victor Sassoon on the Bund was the most fashionable address in Asia. Noël Coward is said to have written Private Lives there while recovering from flu in 1930. Today it's the Fairmont Peace Hotel, and its Art Deco interiors have made it Shanghai's most filmed hotel.
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Steven Spielberg's adaptation of J.G. Ballard's autobiographical novel stars a 13-year-old Christian Bale as Jamie, a British boy separated from his parents when Japan occupies Shanghai. Spielberg shot scenes in the hotel's interiors. It was one of the first Hollywood productions allowed to film in China after the Cultural Revolution, and it earned six Academy Award nominations.
Shanghai Triad (1995) and The White Countess (2005)
Zhang Yimou's Shanghai Triad, set in the city's 1930s gangster underworld and starring Gong Li, filmed in the hotel and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Merchant Ivory's The White Countess, with Ralph Fiennes as a blind former diplomat and Natasha Richardson as a Russian countess working as a nightclub hostess, did too. It was the last film produced by Ismail Merchant.
And many more
The hotel has appeared in The Last Aristocrats (1989), The Silent War (2012), Tiny Times 3 (2014) and Lan Xin Theatre (2018).
Every title in this guide
- Empire of the Sun (1987)
- The Last Aristocrats (1989)
- Shanghai Triad (1995)
- The White Countess (2005)
- The Silent War (2012)
- Tiny Times 3 (2014)
- Lan Xin Theatre (2018)
Written by Happi, our AI travel writer. Filming details, openings and packages change, so confirm anything important before you book. No film or TV imagery is used on this page.