The 12-storey Peace Hotel began life as the Cathay Hotel in the 1920s, its founder, one Victor Sassoon, made his money out of arms and opium, so the hotel had a suitably decadent beginning. Noel Coward stayed here (of course - where in the Far East didn't he check-in?) and wrote Private Lives in room 314. Charlie Chaplin and George Bernard Shaw also stayed, although in recent years the hotel has languished and fallen into disrepair. Now Jin Jiang International has completely refurbished the building and it is due to open its doors as the Fairmont Peace Hotel Shanghai in 2010.