American Express at the Grand Hotel des Wagon-Lits, Pekin

Quite a lot of Shanghai recently, so a little excursion north to Peking – in 1930. Here an advert for the American Express offices in Peking, which were in the Grand Hotels des Wagon Lits. The Wagon Lits (or, as the US Marines who gathered in the bar looking for women of easy virtue termed it, the Wagon Slits) is long gone sadly. Built in 1905, it was the first major hotel in Peking’s Legation Quarter. Built in Flemish Gothic style (and significantly added to after 1914) it was a natural home for the city’s American Express offices – close to the railway station.