And built by a Hungarian architect by the name of László Hudec, is how the story is told here. He was born in 1893 in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied architecture at Budapest University from 1911 to 1914. When the first world war began he enlisted, but was captured by the Russian Army in 1916 and was sent to a prison camp in Siberia. While being transferred, he jumped from a train near the Chinese border and made his way to Shanghai, where he joined the American architectural office R.A. Curry. In 1925 he left to start his own firm, and was responsible for at least 37 buildings up to 1941.
The Chinese don't know from Hungary to Slovaki then or now, Hungary is close enough for them.
The Park Hotel, finally we get to the building, was build in 1934 and remained the tallest building in Shanghai until 1983. Something which is hard to fathom as there are so many new tall building here now.
Here's a little Wikipedia: Shanghai's first building boom occurred in the 1920s and 30s, during the city's heyday as an multinational center of business and finance.[4] After the Communist takeover in 1949 the city's development was stifled, punished for its earlier capitalist excesses.[6] After economic reforms in 1991, the city is undergoing its second construction boom to fulfill its desire to regain its status as an important global financial center.[7]
1991 - can you believe it? It's why this country is so behind and not just in the development and construction of it's city. Until 1979 the Chinese had never been able to travel outside their country and it was difficult for a tourist to come and visit. So weird for me to be experiencing a culture that has been so suppressed, hard to wrap my head around sometimes.
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