SHANGHAI.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Hotel Metropole Guide to Shanghai. First edition, first printing, rare in commerce, of this early tourist guide to the "Paris of the East", provided free by the Hotel Metropole on Bubbling Well Road. The usual places record nine institutional copies, with none in the UK.The Hotel Metropole boasted that it offered tourists and business travellers an escape "from the bustle and din of the City, and more particularly from the weirdly unpleasant noises and antique odours" (p. 17). It offered the services of a resident barber, a bar stocked with champagne, beer, and cocktails, 75 bedrooms, and livery stables.This guide offers a valuable perspective on late Qing Shanghai, before the transformations of the 1920s and 1930s, through many charming period advertisements, including for the Shanghai Horse Bazaar, Robinson Pianos, and the Italian goods importer F. Venturi, as well as through the detailed map. Significant space is devoted to promotions for assorted brands of pure water - clearly a major concern of expatriate residents and visitors.

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