Peninsular Hotel, Kowloon

Founded by members of the Kadoorie family The Peninsula was built with the idea that it would be "the finest hotel east of Suez." In December 1928 the hotel opened in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong, located at junction of Nathan Road and Salisbury Road and directly opposite the quays where ocean liner passengers disembarked. Kowloon was also the last stop on the trans-Siberian rail link that brought travelers from Europe. As such, the Peninsula hotel was ideally situated to take advantage of the increasing number of wealthy visitors to the area. Read more on Wikipedia


Lowry refers to the hotel in his first novel Ultramarine;"Behind the ship the Peninsular Hotel at Kowloon loomed darkly.." (Pg. 77). We can assume that Lowry saw the hotel being built on his Far East voyage in 1927 though it was not complete to the following year.