The fifth to seventh floors housed the Cathay Hotel, with rooms decorated in exotic international themes.

Before 1949, the Cathay Hotel was regarded as the most prestigious hotel in Shanghai.

It was a landmark in the Hongkou District and the centre of foreign social life before the opening of the Cathay Hotel.

The completion of the Cathay Hotel in 1929, "threw a painful shadow upon the old-fashioned Astor House."

While the Astor House was less expensive than the Cathay Hotel, it also lacked air-conditioning.

It showed two major Japanese bombings of the city's streets, in Nanking Road and near the Cathay Hotel.

He founded the Cathay Hotel (now the Peace Hotel) but left under increasing Japanese pressure in 1941.

It was built by the Joint Savings Society as a competitor for the Cathay Hotel.

The Cathay Hotel ceased to exist in the 1950s when it was converted into apartments.

The second detonated in the street just outside the entrance to the Cathay Hotel.