14 April 2008 |  Print |  Email

IBHS members enjoyed a members meeting with a difference as the venue was the hotel that was established in Shanghai in 1858, a property that has had a long and colorful history; some of the first electric lights in Shanghai, the first phone call made in Shanghai and the first stock exchange in China after 1949 in Shanghai were at this hotel. The hotel - the Astor Hotel - billed itself as the Waldorf Astoria of the Orient Peter Hibbard, the eminent speaker, local historian and author, gave a presentation on the hotel scene of the early 1900’s.