Beijing Hotel
The Beijing Hotel (simplified Chinese: 北京饭店; traditional Chinese: 北京飯店; pinyin: Běijīng Fàndiàn) is a five-star state-owned hotel in the Dongcheng District of Beijing, China.
Overview
It is located at the southern end of Wangfujing Street, at the corner with East Chang'an Avenue, 1.5 km from Beijing Railway Station with views of the Forbidden City and part of Tiananmen Square.[1] Construction of the hotel began in 1900 and was completed in 1915, making the hotel one of the oldest in Beijing.[2] During the July 7 incident in 1937, the hotel was taken over by Japanese forces and later by the Kuomintang government.[3] Later, the banquet hall served guests such as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai at the inauguration of the People's Republic.[3] Additional wings were added in 1954, 1974 and 2001, bringing the total number of rooms and suities to over 700.[4]
The hotel usually caters for foreigners and wealthy domestic guests, providing restaurants and bars in a Western and Asian style.[5] Various members of state have stayed there, including Richard Nixon, U Nu, Nikita Khrushchev, Ho Chi Minh and Sun Yat-sen.[3] The hotel has been awarded the Five Star Diamond Award for consecutive years.[4]
In April 2005, Raffles Hotels and Resorts Limited signed an agreement with the Beijing Tourism Group (BTG), to re-brand and manage two of the four blocks of the Beijing Hotel under the Raffles brand. After carrying out some renovations and refurbishment, it was re-launched as the Raffles Beijing Hotel (S: 北京饭店莱佛士, T: 北京飯店萊佛士, P: Běijīng Fàndiàn Láifóshì) in 2006.
During the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the hotel served as the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee.[4]
The adjacent hotel is the Grand Hotel Beijing.
Significance
Many foreign journalists were based in the hotel during the spring of 1989. This was the site where Associated Press photographer Jeff Widener took the famous "Unknown Rebel" picture during the Tiananmen Square protests. According to journalist Zhang Boli, the last meetings between the students and government took place at the hotel on May 30, 1989, where no agreement was reached.[6]
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References
- ↑ Chinoy, M. China Live: People Power and the Television Revolution. Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. ISBN 978-0-8476-9318-4.
- ↑ Harper, D. Beijing. Lonely Planet, 2005. ISBN 978-1-74059-782-1.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Official website History
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Official website Introduction
- ↑ Watson, J. L. & Caldwell M. L. The Cultural Politics of Food and Eating. Blackwell Publishing, 2005. ISBN 978-0-631-23093-9.
- ↑ Zhao, D. The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement. University of Chicago Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-226-98261-8.
External links
Coordinates: 39°54′28″N 116°24′14″E / 39.907745°N 116.403987°E