Remembering Hong Kong’s Repulse Bay Hotel, where Hemingway hung out on ‘the Riviera of the East’
- The heritage property, which was demolished in 1982, would have celebrated its centenary this year
- It hosted a number of famous faces, including Marlon Brando, William Holden and Wallis Simpson
Had it not been torn down by its owners – Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels – in the 1980s, The Repulse Bay Hotel would be celebrating its centenary this year. Heralded by The Hongkong Telegraph as “a real pleasure resort for the Colony, a hotel without its like in the East”, it was opened on New Year’s Day 1920 by Hong Kong’s new governor, Sir Reginald Stubbs. “From the point of view of the tourist,” he was quoted as saying in his opening speech, it was “a great advantage to have a place of this kind, but whether, from the point of view of the Colony, it was a great advantage to have the tourists was a matter on which there was a little difference of opinion.” (Polite laughter ensued.)
It was proposed that Repulse Bay might become the “Menton of the East”, in a comparison to the French Riviera town where the likes of the Hôtel des Anglais catered to tubercular English tourists in the winter and a new breed of sun-worshipper in the summer. The Repulse Bay Hotel even promoted its location as “The Riviera of the East”.
After more than six decades of hosting guests including Wallis Simpson, Ernest Hemingway, William Holden and Marlon Brando, the hotel was demolished in 1982. Three years later, as mournfully noted in The Straits Times, the site remained “a pile of rubble”, with official approval having just been given to Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels to also demolish The Peninsula hotel. Fortunately, sanity prevailed, and the latter was saved (a tower was added instead); a facsimile of the central building of The Repulse Bay Hotel – but not its two residential wings – was erected to house The Verandah restaurant in 1986.
How long, or if ever, the area actually resembled the French Riviera is unclear, but Richard Oliver, of the North China Daily News, visiting in June 1920, was unconvinced. For him, the place – with its newly crowded beach – was more like a working-class English seaside town. “Any afternoon before 1918,” he wrote, “Repulse Bay was a place deserted. The internal combustion engine has made it like Margate.”
Get your hands on a piece of aviation history
Although they entered commercial service only in October 2007, the first two Airbus A380 “Superjumbo” airliners were sent to the scrapyard last year. Both were leased and operated by Singapore Airlines, with registration numbers 9V-SKA and 9V-SKB.
Aviationtag, a German company that makes luggage tags made from the fuselages, wings and tails of scrapped airliners, recently put 7,000 items made from the recycled 9V-SKA up for sale on its website. They sold out within 48 hours, but another series, made from the body of 9V-SKB, is in the works, and pre-orders are open at the time of writing. If those are sold out, too, there are plenty more tags to choose from at aviationtag.com.
Penang’s Angsana Teluk Bahang still promising to open soon
Deal of the week – three nights in Sydney, Australia
A three-night stay in Sydney, with flights on Cathay Pacific, is offered from HK$4,830 per person (twin share) at Jebsen Holidays. At this price you’ll be staying at the Travelodge Hotel, which gets mixed but mostly favourable reviews online, while more upmarket options include the Hilton, from HK$6,450 and the Four Seasons, from HK$6,270.
