The Grand Hotel des Wagons Lits in 1909

Following on from my recent post on the Grand Hotel des Wagons Lits thanks to Bill Savadove, a gentleman of Shanghai, for the following:

This is from the 1909 “Guide to Peking and its environs” by Fei-shi. Just saw the reprint this week!

The Grand Hotel des Wagon-Lits, Ltd.

“This is the hotel par excellence. There are two sections to this hotel. The older one is in the rear, while the front, or new section, along the canal, was added in 1908. This gives the hotel ample room for visitors who generally arrive in spring and autumn. The hotel is, at times, the meeting place of Princes of the Blood and of the highest mandarins of the Empire. Any visitor to Peking who looses (sic) his way should say to a ricksha coolie ‘Liu Kwo Fan Tien’, when he will be taken at once to the centre of Legation Quarter, in other words, the Hotel des Wagon-Lits.”