Victoria Hotel

Old: Victoria Hotel 威多厘酒店
Now: Victory Hotel 广东胜利宾馆
Shamian Island 沙面岛

Looking for something else but came upon a few photos of Victoria Hotel on Shamian (Shameen) Island in Guangzhou. As for my fading memory, I’d better write about it, for the photos’ sake.

The port city has a long history and many names, lost in translation:

• 214BC, Panyu (Punyü) 番禺
• 917-971, Xingwang Fu 兴王府
• City of the Five Rams or genii 五羊城
• Cantão by Iberian merchants ⇒ Canton
• 1918, Guangzhou but ‘Cantonese lives on’

The Victoria Hotel: the two story structure was built in 1888 and was the hotel between 1895 and 1946, according to this dream of a city post. After the WW II and the founding of China in 1949, the hotel changed the name to Victory Hotel. It also acquired the old HBSC nearby, making it into the West Wing, which is more ‘historical’ than the original hotel, the East Wing.

This following photo is from Bristol University, on June 23, 1925, “in aftermath of the May 30th shootings in Shanghai, when shooting broke out between demonstrating Chinese military cadets, and British and French servicemen and volunteers across the canal on Shameen/Shamian island, Canton (Guangzhou).”