Many of the finest hotels in east Asia date from the steamship and railway era, and have retained their original character while adapting to the jet age. Their spaciousness, old-world tranquillity, elegance and architecture recall the age of leisurely journeys to faraway places. In those unhurried days, genteel voyagers were accompanied by servants bearing massive trunks - unlike today's travellers who frantically rush through airports clutching carry-on bags. Most Asian capitals have one outstanding hotel which is a legacy of its colonial days. Many have been restored in recent years and now provide their city's best - and almost certainly most interesting - hotel address.
Hong Kong's sumptuous Peninsula Hotel opened on Fragrant Harbour in 1928, in the early days of leisure travel when guests stayed for weeks. Each room was a suite with dressing room, bathroom, sitting room, bedroom and a boxroom for the storage of suitcases and trunks. The hotel's extensive refrigeration facilities included storage for guests' furs.
When Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and his entourage took over the entire sixth-floor west wing, the hotel had to replace European toilets with the Oriental squat-style. Hong Kongers remarked that the Peninsula had gone "native".