Chapter Ninety-Three
Sitting in the customized version of the 4x4 extended version of the Hummer H200 luxury RV, Zhao Heng looked out the window at the busy pedestrians on both sides of the street and the morning scenery of Shanghai that had gone away.
Zhao Heng asked the driver in the cab in front of him through the on-board communication device: "How long will it take to get to Huizhong Hotel?" ”
The driver of the cab replied: "Report to the commander, because there are many pedestrians on the street just after ten o'clock, we have to slow down for the sake of driving safety, and the car is traveling at a speed of less than 20 kilometers per hour, and in another 20-30 minutes we will be able to meet Miss Rina and them." ”
Fang Xinling, the female communications officer sitting in the co-pilot's seat and Zhao Heng's current temporary deputy, asked: "Commander, will we go into the hotel lobby and wait for that group of girls, or will we be at the door?" ”
Zhao Heng smiled and said, "Hehe, let's wait outside the door." You can't let these girls stay outside the door. In fact, he was very curious about what these girls looked like, and when he talked to the girls just now, they were disguised and disguised.
Fang Xinling, who was in the co-pilot's seat, replied: "Yes, according to your request, we will wait at the door of Huizhong Hotel." ”
Half an hour later, the 4x4 extended version of the Hummer H200 luxury RV that Long Bazun and his party were waiting for drove several corners along the large and small streets, almost going to the wrong place, and after asking several locals along the way, they drove directly to No. 23 Nanjing Road, where Huizhong Hotel is located.
Zhao Heng stepped out of his car, still wearing the same Australian military uniform, but a pair of Lei Peng sunglasses on the bridge of his nose and a thick Cuban Havana cigar cigarette on his mouth. The clones in the same company are almost the same as Zhao Heng's virtuous appearance, except that they do not have Cuban cigars in their mouths, in the eyes of outsiders, the only highlight among these big men is Fang Xinling, a tall man of one meter seven or eight is taller than most men in Shanghai, although he cannot be compared with Zhao Heng's adjutant Tang Lina, but he is also a big beauty. With shoulder-length short hair, just the right melon seed face, and a Lei Peng women's sunglasses on the bridge of her small nose, her figure is no less than Tang Lina's devilish figure.
Zhao Heng just got out of the car and saw the Huizhong Hotel towering in front of him for the first time, because no one could see the strange golden light spots in his eyes because he was wearing sunglasses, and his mind kept checking the information given by the system at this time:
Huizhong Hotel was formerly known as the Central Hotel (located in Building 19 of Zhongshan East Road on the Bund, now the South Building of the Peace Hotel, because this plot is wide from east to west and narrow from north to south, the main entrance is located at No. 23 Nanjing East Road, and No. 19 near the Bund has become the side gate. The predecessor of this building was called Huizhong Hotel, and then it was called Central Hotel, which was one of the earliest hotels built in Shanghai. Built in 1908 in the Qing Dynasty, this European-style building was the tallest and first building in Shanghai to be equipped with an elevator. The main entrance of Huizhong Hotel (now the South Building of Peace Hotel) is located at No. 23 Nanjing East Road, and No. 19 near the Bund is the side gate. It was finally completed in 1908 in the 20th century, completely inheriting the classical architectural style of the European Renaissance. This building is a neo-Renaissance style imitation building built in the early 20th century on the Bund in Shanghai. (The Central Hotel was built in the 50s of the 19th century and is a three-story British-style building that was leased in 1865 when HSBC opened a branch in Shanghai.) After the opening of the port of Shanghai, the number of foreigners and missionaries who came to Shanghai to do business increased day by day, so the hotel industry gradually developed. At that time, there were two earliest and most luxurious hotels in Shanghai, one was the Licha Hotel (now Pujiang Hotel) and the other was the Central Hotel. In 1895, Huizhong & Co. took control of the Central Hotel through an equity exchange, and in 1903 it was renamed Huizhong Hotel. The hotel building was the first building in Shanghai and China to install elevators. The hotel is located at No. 19 on the Bund or No. 23 Nanjing Road, in a prime location at the corner of these two roads. As early as the early 1850s of the 19th century, a three-storey Central Hotel was built here. It was the oldest foreign-funded hotel in the public concession at the same time as the Licha Hotel. On 3 April 1865, the Shanghai branch of HSBC was established and leased the premises for operation until 1874. In 1903, the Central Hotel was officially reorganized into the Huizhong Hotel, and the architect of the British-owned Morrison & Co., Scott was invited to design and renovate the six-storey building. In 1906, the building was officially started, which lasted more than two years and was completed in 1908, with a height of 30 meters and a total of six floors, with a construction area of 11,607 square meters, mainly brick and wood structure. (In 1906, after a meeting of the board of directors of Huizhong Hotel, it was decided to demolish the old building and rebuild the new building, which was completed and opened to the public in 1908.) After the reconstruction, the scale of the building and the hotel facilities were first-class at that time. The new building was designed by Shi Gaota, an engineer from Xiangtai & Co., and built by Wang Fa Kee Construction Factory, when the Ministry of Public Concession was skeptical that the Chinese could do such a project, and the license was delayed. In the end, Wang Faji's boss asked Yang Sisheng (who had built the second Jianghai Beiguan Building) as a guarantee to get the project. )
The architectural style belongs to the neo-Renaissance style, with a large white brick façade, divided by a red brick waistline, and a stone façade on the ground floor. The interior is exquisitely decorated. It was not until the 1930s that the Huizhong Hotel was officially opened to the Chinese. In addition, the new building covers an area of 2,125 square meters, with a construction area of 11,607 square meters. The six floors are a mix of brick and wood and have a total height of 30 meters. The exterior is in the Renaissance style of architecture. The exterior wall is made of white bricks, inlaid with red bricks as the waistline. Doors and windows have rounded arches and flat arches. The main entrance is a turnstile door. There is a garden on the roof, and a baroque pavilion is built on the east and west sides of the garden, and in summer and autumn, you can sit in the pavilion on the east side and watch the tide of the Huangpu River. The pavilion is connected to a semicircular wall at the northeast corner of the building, making the building more upright and luxurious. Unfortunately, in 1914, a fire broke out on the sixth floor, which affected the garden and pavilion on the roof. There are a total of 120 rooms in the hotel, each of which is equipped with sanitary facilities. There is a staircase with wooden handrails and a delicate carving. On the ground floor is a large dining room, which can accommodate more than 300 people at the same time. The hall is surrounded by teak wood parapets and a flat ceiling decorated with plaster carvings. In normal times, the hall is isolated by a screen, and the screen is removed to form a large auditorium, which can be used for large gatherings.
A young doorman who was one meter tall and seventy-seven years old, almost twenty years old, was guarding the door, and his eyes lit up when he looked at Zhao Heng and his party (in fact, he was blinded by Zhao Heng's dog-like performance, especially the futuristic style car of the almost luxurious Hummer behind Zhao Heng in this era...... Especially Zhao Heng's nouveau riche appearance with a cigar in his mouth made him feel that this must be a big fat sheep, but unfortunately when his eyes swept over the big guys around Zhao Heng, the idea of slaughtering a fat sheep was left behind. He took a few steps forward and asked Zhao Heng respectfully: "Dear sir, do you need me to help you park?" Do you have anything else to do? ”