More than most outsiders, Jewish businessmen left a mark on early Shanghai, a city that for many was a place of refuge from persecution - and for some a gold mine.

Sephardic Jews were the first group to arrive in Shanghai in the 1840s, bringing business from Baghdad, Mumbai, Singapore and Hong Kong. The Sassoons, the Kadoories and Silas Aaron Hardoon went on to help shape the city with landmark buildings, schools and hospitals.

One of the prime examples of the city's fine architecture is the Fairmont Peace Hotel, a stunning art deco building that never fails to impress visitors who still flock there to admire its architecture and old-fashioned opulence.

The hotel opened in 1929 on Nanjing Road East and along the Bund. The 77-meter-tall building was once the highest in the Far East. In 2010, the hotel was reopened after a three-year renovation, which cost HK$500 million ($64.40 million).

Family business

The hotel was built by Victor Sassoon, one of the fourth generation of David Sassoon's family. The Sassoon family were Iraqi Jews based in Baghdad and had been one of the world's wealthiest families since the 18th century. In 1828 because of persecution and harassment by the Baghdad authorities, David Sassoon took his family to resettle in the Gulf port of Bushehr later moving to Mumbai, where he established the international family business David Sassoon & Sons.

David Sassoon sent his eight sons to run the business branches throughout India, Myanmar, Malaysia and China. He established a branch in Hong Kong in 1844 and opened the first office in Shanghai the following year to cash in on the opium trade. Nearly one-fifth of all the opium brought into China at that time was shipped by the Sassoon company. Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, David's eldest son, inherited the family's business after the father died.

It was David's second son, Elias David Sassoon, and his descendants who became inextricably linked with Shanghai. Elias came to Shanghai in 1850 to take care of the family business. The father had allowed his sons to buy property and start their own businesses as long as this never interfered with the family business. Elias bought a considerable amount of land cheaply including the land where the Fairmont Peace Hotel was built. He left his father's company and opened a new business E. D. Sassoon in Mumbai in 1867. Five years later, he opened his first office in Shanghai. From the beginning of 20th century, the old family business in Shanghai declined and the E. D. Sassoon company, which was active in opium, real estate and textiles, became the major force.

It was Elias's grandson Victor Sassoon who made the family name synonymous with Shanghai luxury. Victor was injured in an aircraft accident in World War I (1914-18) and from then on could only walk supported by sticks. He inherited the E. D. Sassoon business in 1918 and made his business prosper by buying land from bankrupt merchants and auction houses (a traditional business mode for the family). In 1920, Victor started to transfer his fortune and business to Shanghai from Mumbai.

The leading trader

Although Victor's 30 or so companies covered a wide range of businesses, he made most of his money in real estate. He was at one stage the leading real estate trader in the city.

His properties included the Hamilton Building and the Metropole Hotel at the intersection of today's Fuzhou Road and Jiangxi Road Middle, the Cathay Theater on Huaihai Road Middle, the Orient Hotel on Xizang Road Middle, the Embankment Building on Suzhou Road North and the Cathay Mansions.

Victor realized that although it was easy to find luxury apartments in Shanghai at the time, entertainment and service were lacking. To help change this he built the 12-story Sassoon House on the Bund (now the Fairmont Peace Hotel).

After the building was completed in 1929, Victor rented out the underground, first and second floors to shops, businesses and banks. The third floor was used as his office. And the beautifully wood-paneled 10th floor was his personal apartment. On the other six floors the Cathay Hotel offered guests the very best in accommodation, entertainment and fine dining.

The entire project covered 4,622 square meters and cost a fortune (5.6 million taels of silver in the money of the day). The Cathay Hotel became the most popular venue for the leading society figures of the day and Victor was famous for his lifestyle and charity.

It was a major status symbol to be able to spend a night at the hotel. Film star Charlie Chaplin and playwright Noel Coward were among the guests and even today the building is one of the outstanding landmarks on the Bund.

When World War II (1939-45) broke out, Victor began offloading his real estate holdings in Shanghai. He transferred money to Hong Kong and London, and moved his business headquarters to Nassau in Bahamas. In 1958, all his remaining business interests in Shanghai were confiscated to pay outstanding taxes.

Unlike Victor who was born with silver spoon in his mouth, the tycoon Silas Aaron Hardoon made his fortune the hard way. He was born Sileh Hardoon to a poor Jewish family in Baghdad in 1851. When he was 5, the family moved to Mumbai and he attended a charity school funded by David Sassoon.

In 1873, he came to Shanghai where he got a job as a rent collector and night watchman with David Sassoon & Sons. With an acute instinct for business, he rose quickly through the ranks. He helped the company make huge profits in real estate and quietly purchased land for himself at the same time.

In 1886 he left the old Sassoon company to work for the new firm, the E. D. Sassoon company. In less than a decade, Hardoon was put in charge of the company's most profitable wings - real estate and opium. In 1901 he left that Sassoon company to start his own business.

Broadminded and visionary, Hardoon believed that the western section of Nangjing Road would be prosperous and he bought up and developed a great deal of the land in the area, which was going cheaply at the time. He spent 600,000 taels of silver paving Nanjing Road from the Bund to Xizang Road Middle.

The best road in Shanghai of the day helped increased Hardoon's fame as well as the value of his land. When he died he was described as the richest man in Asia and he owned 44 percent of the real estate on Nanjing Road, including the sections where today's Plaza 353 and the Wing On Department Store are found.

Abandoned child

Hardoon's success was closely related to the support given by his wife, the Eurasian Luo Jialing. She had been abandoned as a child by her father, a French sailor and lived in poverty until she met Hardoon. Clever and brave they were a formidable team. They married in 1886 and she taught Hardoon about Chinese and Buddhist culture and traditions. This resulted in Hardoon financing a great deal of Buddhist activities and writing.

In 1901 Hardoon authorized the monk Huang Zongyang to design the Aili Garden on the site of the present Shanghai Exhibition Center on Yan'an Road Middle. The traditional landscape garden became the Hardoon's residence in 1909 and was for some time the largest private garden in old Shanghai. Hardoon feted Sun Yat-sen and other celebrities and politicians in the garden.

The couple also promoted Chinese culture there employing some of the leading scholars of the day to teach culture and traditions. Hardoon and his wife had no children of their own, but they adopted 11 foreign and nine Chinese children. Hardoon died in 1931 in the garden and left Luo a fortune which, on her death, provoked years of legal battles.

During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), the garden was looted and vandalized by Japanese soldiers.

Another family that left its mark on Shanghai history was the Kadoorie family. In 1880, Elly Kadoorie arrived at Shanghai with his father and brother looking for help from their distant relatives, the Sassoon family, which was rich and well established. In Sassoon's company, Kadoorie worked on ships, his father was employed in warehouses and his brother was an errand boy.

It was far from a sumptuous life but Kadoorie had plans. After borrowing money from a friend, he went to Hong Kong the following year and opened a stock broking firm.

Back to Shanghai

Another natural businessman, he expanded and grew his company, moving back to Shanghai in 1911. When several rubber companies faced bankruptcy he bought them up and merged them. With his second son, he was a major player in the city's real estate, electricity, gas and rubber businesses. He was also one of the city's great philanthropists founding the Shanghai Yucai High School.

Kadoorie left the city a wonderful example of architecture on today's Yan'an Road West, the China Welfare Institute Children's Palace. This came about after a personal tragedy when Kadoorie's wife saved the life of a nursemaid in a house fire but died herself.

The grief-stricken man took his two sons to London to recover but authorized an architect friend to build a new home. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the city) the friend was a heavy drinker and left construction of the home to the builder who created an extravagant marble mansion. It boasted a dance hall that could accommodate 400 couples.

The residence was taken over by the Japanese command during the war but in 1953 on Children's Day, Soong Ching Ling officially opened the home as Shanghai's first children's palace.