Between the two World Wars Shanghai shone:  deliciously decadent, cultured, yet corrupt it was a place where the pursuit of pleasure was second only to the pursuit of wealth.  Businessmen, adventurers, aristocrats, opium traders, crime bosses, prostitutes  and assorted refugees all partied with aplomb in Shanghai in the 1930s and at the heart of it all was this hotel. Heritage hotel specialists at Fairmont worked close with designers, architects and historians and the result is a hotel which is an authentic as it can be in, give the demands of 21st century guests. Decked out in all her Art Deco finery - Lalique Chandeliers glittering like drop-earrings, marble floor shimmering like a silk evening dress - the hotel is again the toast of Shanghai. Its past seeps out of the stucco and curls up from its mosaic floors until everyone who stays here is somehow time-warped by it.  In the Jasmine Lounge one night F Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age seems to be alive and well and influencing us all; cocktails are consumed with abandon, the women are wittier, the men are better dressed and everyone stays late.