USTDC

Photo of USTDC courtesy of Les Duffin

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Grand Hotel Evolution

We recently had some discussion here about the changes to the Grand Hotel over the years. Les recently sent me these photos that document those changes.

Here are his comments:

I have photos of the four phases of construction outline in the Wikipedia article. Here are the original building, the Jade Phoenix (Ch'ui Feng Ting) -- both photographed in 1962 -- and the Chi Lin Pavillion, which I shot in 1965.





Finally, here's one of the current out-sized building taken in 1975. When that was finished in '73, a Chinese commentator quipped that they now needed to build a higher mountain behind it in order to restore a sense of perspective.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Les,

Your second picture above of the original building is the Grand Hotel that I remember from 1959-1960. The gate in your first picture must have been added after I left. The original building had a grand location and was quite nice for that era. Thanks for refreshing my memory.

Anonymous said...

Stev:

You're certainly welcome. If I recall correctly, the original building had a pool and tennis court in front of it. When the new large building was built, it occupied all that space and a new pool, tennis courts and clubhouse were built down the hill in the direction of Club 63.

George McAdams said...

Les,

In 1958 my family, Lt. Col. C. A. McAdams, wife, Gertrude, and I lived for six weeks in the Grand Hotel. The 2nd and 4th pictures remind me of how we would drive to a side entrance when I was driven home from school. The 3rd picture may have been the front entrance, but I do not remember that much "red" paint.

Looking down from the front, though, I do remember how majestic it looked to see the tennis courts and swimming pool below the hotel.

Thanks for posting this article.

George McAdams
Sheffield, AL