The Grand Hôtel de Pékin opened its first wing in 1915, a five-story red brick building financed by French investors along Chang’an Avenue near the Forbidden City. Business boomed fast enough that a second wing, known as Block B, went up just two years later in 1917, adding 105 suites with central heating and a ballroom with a sprung dance floor, features unheard of in Beijing at the time.
The hotel became the social and diplomatic center of the city for decades, weathering the Second Sino-Japanese War and the rise and fall of the Kuomintang government. Mao Zedong later frequented Block B after 1950, holding state banquets in its restored ballroom. The building operates today as Beijing Hotel NUO, one of three surviving wings of the original complex, each now under separate management. It’s a Historic Hotels of America member since 2019.