How Hong Kong got its Mandarin hotel, which opened quietly in 1963
- Built on the site of the Queen’s Building, it was originally slated to be called Queen’s Hotel
- The name was changed after a survey found Americans preferred the more ‘exotic-sounding’ Mandarin
“New Hotel Will Be On Queen’s Building Site,” announced a South China Morning Post headline on July 9, 1960.
“The $55,000,000 luxury hotel to be built on the site of the present Queen’s Building will be one of the tallest buildings in Hongkong and will have up-to-date conveniences ranging from television in the bedrooms to telephones in the bathrooms,” reported the Post on November 18.
Despite having settled on the name Queen’s Hotel, on August 24, 1962, it was announced that the property would instead be called the Mandarin. “A nationwide survey of the United States seeking American reaction to the hotel name shows that the American public, who comprised the majority of this Colony’s tourists, preferred the exotic-sounding Mandarin,” reported the Post.
At the hotel’s topping off ceremony, on March 28, 1963, “Mandarin lion dancers cavorted […] invoking good fortune for the hotel’s builders and future occupants.”
On September 1, the Post reported: “The Mandarin opened quietly today [to accept guests from the closing Gloucester]. Only a small portion of the 650-room, 27-storey hotel will be in use. The official opening of all the hotel’s services will be in a few weeks.”
