The Astor House Hotel Tientsin, 1930

You can of course still stay in the Astor House Hotel in Tianjin – I wouldn’t stay anywhere else. They gave it a makeover a few years back which didn’t help thinks heritage wise (though was outstanding by Chinese standards that range from Bulldozer to Terrible). I stayed there quite a few times in the 1990s when it felt very ghost like and it wasn’t always obvious it would escape the demolition man. It is, of course, wonderfully situated close to the former Victoria Park and the river. I won’t go into the history of the hotel here – too long (1846) and easy enough to find in books or on the internet.