The Excelsior, 37-floor hotel in Wan Chai District, Hong Kong.
The Excelsior was a 37-story hotel on Gloucester Road in Wan Chai with over 1,000 rooms offering views of Victoria Harbour. The building combined lodging with dining and event spaces, serving both business travelers and leisure visitors.
The hotel opened in 1973 on a plot sold shortly after Hong Kong became a British colony in 1841. Its decades as a landmark in the business district concluded in 2019 when demolition made way for a new office tower.
The space once hosted Yee Tung Heen, a Cantonese restaurant that earned recognition for its cooking, and the Dickens Bar, which drew guests seeking a British-style setting in the heart of Wan Chai.
The building no longer exists as it was demolished in 2019 to make room for new development. Visitors exploring the Wan Chai waterfront can still identify the site along Victoria Harbour where the tower once stood.
The hotel used an advanced cooling system that drew seawater directly from the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. This approach was innovative for its time and showed an early application of ocean resources for sustainable building operations.
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