Visitors to the Astor Hotel, Tianjin, may not only feel like they have stepped into a museum, they may actually find themselves in one.

Tianjin's most impressive building of the early 20th century, the Astor is the only hotel with a national-level museum inside.

"While Tianjin has many unknown treasures, the Astor is its crowning gem," says Martin Verpoorten, the hotel's general manager.

As the city's first hotel to welcome foreign guests, it boasts ground-breaking innovations in the hospitality industry and authentic "presidential suite".

More importantly, it is the only hotel in China that is part of the national cultural-relic preservation project.

A 147-year-old landmark, the renovated Astor Hotel opened on Aug 22, after undergoing a 300-million-yuan restoration, in time to welcome the high-profile guests attending the 2010 Summer Davos forum.

"We want to be a lifestyle hotel, museum hotel and historical hotel, not purely a business hotel," Verpoorten says.

Located in the heart of Tianjin, the Astor skirts the "Mother River of Tianjin", the Haihe River.

The renovation has not only restored the hotel back to its former glory but it has taken it to a new level. Every attempt was made to preserve the old brick walls, floors and doors, through the use of state-of-the-art technology.

"If you work somewhere steeped in history, you will work with pride and passion," Verpoorten says.

The restoration team's painstaking efforts are evident in every detail of the hotel. The guest rooms are done up in rich colors and elegant furniture, and the digital and Internet facilities kept hidden. For instance, one won't notice the flat-screen TV as it is embedded in the wall.

"Luxury means you can have the convenience when you want it, but won't see it when you don't need it," Verpoorten says.

Since its founding in 1863, the Astor Hotel has hosted history's most famous names from home and abroad. Key figures that have dominated modern China's destiny, like Sun Yat-sen, Yuan Shikai and the last emperor Pu Yi, have all crossed the threshold of the Astor.

For quite a few years, Sun Yat-sen administrated the whole country from this very hotel. The last Emperor, Pu Yi, and Empress Wan Rong, spent many enchanting autumn evenings dancing in the hotel's ballroom. The Astor has also played Cupid, in the case of Marshall Zhang Xueliang and Miss Zhao Yidi.

In the late 1880s, the urbanization of Tianjin port and the expansion of the foreign community gave the Astor a new direction. Two international treaties were signed at the property. The former president of the United States Herbert Hoover kept a room here for several years before stepping into the spotlight in the political arena. In more recent times, Premier Zhou Enlai met the visiting Polish Premier Jozef Cyrankiewicz at the hotel.

The Astor also kept pace with the fast-changing technology. It was the first hotel in China to be equipped with a telegraph machine, an electrical generator, a central heating system and hot water boiler. Later, in 1924, it celebrated the construction of a deluxe wing which introduced the first electric light bulbs and the first elevator in a public building in China - a rare feature in any building at that time. All these precious items remain well-preserved to this day.

"Tianjin is more European than other cities in China. This is especially true of the area around the Haihe River, " Verpoorten says.

"We want to lead people to discover Tianjin as a destination. We don't just want to be a hotel, we want to be part of the attractions in Tianjin."

China Daily

(China Daily 09/18/2010 page13)